Murph triumphs but motorsport is the real winner after Round 1

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Published on Wednesday, 22 February 2012 21:21

A massive weekend for motorsport saw Greg Murphy leave the first round of the new V8 SuperTourer series as the championship leader, but the real winners were the fans.

"There was a real vibe about the place that something big and exciting was about to happen and thousands upon thousands of race fans just added hugely to that vibe," explained series CEO Paul Radisich.

Hampton Downs own estimates put the crowd figures at 8,000 for Saturday and around 20,000 for Sunday – making the V8 SuperTourers event their biggest ever circuit racing event.

Almost one hundred members of the press attended the race weekend, with a double figure attendance from Australia, and every major media and motorsport media represented. "TV1 even used footage from host broadcaster TV3 to ensure they did not miss out on the biggest sport story of the weekend," added Radisich.

Murphy's two wins were massively popular with the crowd, and the Bathurst legend was besieged all weekend for autographs and photographs with the fans. Ant Pedersen won a spectacular feature race, which had as many twists and turns and drama as any legendary race in any touring car series worldwide with lead changes, high drama, a couple of race changing penalties, a Murph spin and a surprise winner.

Multiple New Zealand champion Kayne Scott showed consistent speed to dominate qualifying, only to run wide, in race one, as did Murph, on the infield hairpin, allowing Andy Booth to dart up the inside of both front runners, and seize the lead, which he held for several laps before being reeled in by both Murphy and Kayne Scott.

In the second race, Scott got the jump on Murphy and lead the the race for a several race laps before falling victim to an on fire Murphy.

The feature race was pretty much a repeat of the second race with Scott seizing the early lead before being punted off by Murphy, that earned him a drive through penalty. Scott could understandably feel that he was hard done by being, in effect double penalised, when he was forced to pit to repair the damage caused by Murphy unwelcome attention to his rear end.

"No question about it, it was a breathtaking race and I've rarely ended a race in second place on such a massive high," said three time NZ V8 Champion John McIntyre.

Murphy leads the series from Scott, followed by Reid in third place.

As well as the debut races of the new V8 SuperTourers, the fans had the chance to tour the pit lane, see the cars close up and meet up with the teams as well as the drivers. Merchandise too was incredibly popular and sold out by mid Sunday afternoon.

The weekend featured three V8 SuperTourer races, three races of the debut V8 Challenge Cup for older NZ Championship style V8 cars, a full field of Central Muscle cars, a record field of Hondas, Superkarts and some amazing drifting demonstrations both on track and in the skid pan.

The series now moves to the South Island with the second round being held at the famous and historic Powerbuilt Raceway, a.k.a. Ruapuna over the Easter weekend of April 7/8. You can book your tickets on line by visiting the Tickets area.