Mountain Man: Greg Murphy's 2011 was highlighted by pole and a podium result at Bathurst.
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6:00 AM Wed 4 January, 2012
Source: BigPond Sport
WITH a full-time drive looking more and more unlikely as season 2010 drew to a close, Kiwi ace Greg Murphy was unbelievably looking like he would become solely an endurance driver for the 2011 season.
But a deal with his former teammates Rick and Todd Kelly landed the four-time Bathurst winner at Kelly Racing in partnership with the Pepsi Max Crew.
Ultimately it would prove to be a successful season, as Murphy reminded the V8 Supercar fraternity that given the right equipment and environment, he can still cut the mustard.
BigPond Sport chilled out with ‘Murf’ after the conclusion of the Sydney Telstra 500 to get his take on the 2011 season.
Championship Position: 13th
Best Race Result: 3rd (Bathurst)
Best Qualifying: 1st (Bathurst)
What is your highlight of 2011?
Pole at Bathurst. The whole weekend was great.
What is your funniest moment from 2011?
I had a really good time and it was hilarious the entire time he was around with my Gold Coast co-driver Oliver Gavin from England. We got on really well; he’s a real laugh with a good sense of humour. We’ve kept in touch since as well.
What are you getting up to during the off-season break?
We’re going to be cruising. I’ll take the kids and the good wife back to New Zealand to see some family and just spend plenty of time mountain biking, playing golf and in cafes. We’ll just enjoy some time with no pressure, there’s a few places we usually go to over there so we should be there for about four weeks.
We’re pretty lucky when it comes to that. It’s busy, busy all year so we’ll make the most of it and take a reasonable hit at it.
What was the race that got away from you in 2011?
Too many to list! I can go back through a whole lot and if I’d do something slightly different, there would have been a better result. I don’t know where to start!
Even Sandown on the Saturday – we had the windscreen fail and I had to come in and then I shunted. But the cars were really quick and Rick and Todd proved that. We could have had a reasonable result that day, but we didn’t have the kind of year where we were running top three and had something go wrong – we had days we should have been in the top 10 and weren’t.
New Year’s Resolution?
Try to do everything a little bit better. I can list a fair few errors in 2011 where you would expect better of yourself. There will be a bit of pressure off in 2012 because I’m not having to re-learn things and I’m starting off at the same team.
2012 Goal?
We started to push into the top 10 last year in the last third of the year. That’s where we have to be. And to start the year better too.
I never thought I’d be saying it would be good to be in the top 10, but it’s so hard now and so competitive that if you finish in the top 10 you’ve done pretty good.
2011 Rating out of 10?
5 and a half, maybe 6. Let’s go 6.
