V8 SuperCars Driver Profile: Greg Murphy

sportThis year sees Holden stalwart Greg Murphy (Murph) once again driving for a new team. 2007 sees Murph drive for Tasman Motorsport. As he is a New Zealander it looks as though it will be a good marketing move at least.

Since 2004 he has driven for the Supercheap Auto Racing team. Before that it was Kmart Racing in 2000, Gibson Motorsport in 1999 and before then his V8 SuperCar debut was in a VS Commodore for the Holden Racing Team in 1997. At least he has stayed loyal to the Holden brand.

He has probably changed teams more often than any of the big name drivers in the V8 series and this latest was with still one year to go in his contract with Supercheap Auto Racing. If it wasn’t for his undeniable talent as a driver, you would be starting to ask questions.

Questions like…

Is he really as talented as we think?
Does he have trouble fitting into a team?
Or more simply Why?

In this case I would give Murph the benefit of the doubt.

He is an ultra competitive driver, and Tasman MotorSport showed some good form in 2006 so that and the fact he will be effectively racing for his home country New Zealand, could justify the move. However I am always suspicious as to why Supercheap Auto Racing would let such a talented driver go before his contract is out. Kees Wheel’s team owner has commented that…

 “Murph has contributed a great deal to Supercheap Auto Racing over the past two years, but while we still had him under contract he has another opportunity and we didn’t want to stand in the way of that,”

If Kees Wheel was a football coach (no matter which code) saying that about a player, you just know there has been some ‘back office’ issues.

Murph should be very competitive in 2007, especially as all the Holden teams will be coming to grasp with the new VE Commodore, however I still firmly believe Craig Lowndes is the man to beat.