The Pukekohe King's Car

As the V8 Supercars Championshipcommunity counts down to the return to Pukekohe Park Raceway for the ITM400Auckland on April 12-14, today on Saturday Sleuthing we have great news about acar that had its fair share of success at the venue.

The TWR Australia-built Commodore VZthat Greg Murphy took to victory in 2005 at Pukekohe for PWR’s Supercheap AutoRacing outfit has had its race-winning livery restored for the 2013 racingseason – and is still racing on!

Now owned by South Australian IanYeing, the car competes in the Kumho Tyres Australian V8 Touring Car Series forex-V8 Supercars and made its first public appearance in Murph’s old war paint(along with some of Yeing’s sponsor signage) last weekend at Sydney MotorsportPark.

While the car proved to be a real hitwith the fans trackside, the Adelaide transport operator certainly doesn’t professto have anywhere near the speed of the four-time Bathurst winner.

But what he doesn’t have in speed, hesure does have in enthusiasm.

The 50-year-old had never racedanything prior to buying the car last year and made his racing debut this time12 months ago in the opening V8 Touring Car round.

“I went out to Clipsal a few years agoto watch Adam Wallis race the car and I ended up having a few beers and thenext thing I knew I’d bought the car!” laughed Yeing this week when the V8Sleuth caught up with him.

The car is now prepared and lookedafter by THR Developments in Adelaide, which also operates an ex-Stone BrothersFalcon for former V8 Supercar driver Chris Smerdon in the V8 Touring Carcategory and an ex-Team Dynamik Commodore formerly driven by the late JasonRichards, though now steered by young Saloon Car racer Josh Kean.

“The feedback we had last weekend wasgreat,” says Yeing.

“Everybody reckoned it looked great.Lots of people said it looked like the real deal – because it is! There are afew small differences with the livery but it’s pretty much how it ran in 2005.

“I got the original livery design forit from the guys who originally did it in Melbourne and the guys at DesignFX inAdelaide made it up and did it over here.

“The car has been painted black and redsince January but we didn’t get the livery done until the week of the racemeeting so it was a busy week getting ourselves ready.

“I actually wanted to do the liverywhen I first started racing the car last year, but it hasn’t happened untilthis year. I was keen to get Supercheap Auto on board with it, but I’ll keep onhounding them – perhaps they can use the car for a display somewhere down thetrack.

“I haven’t bent the car at all – it’sthe last thing I want to do. I certainly don’t go as fast as Murph used to, soI think the car probably loves me for that reason!

“I’ll keep plodding away with it andI’ll hang onto it when I’ve finished racing it.”

We featured this car in SaturdaySleuthing last year with its full history but in short, the Murphy 2005Pukekohe winner started life when it was built in late 2001 and made its racingdebut at Albert Park in 2002 as a Kmart car.

It is chassis number HRT 046 – it wasdesignated a HRT chassis despite never actually being used by the Holden RacingTeam, instead by its sister Kmart squad from new.

It was Murphy’s infamous ‘five-minutepenalty’ car at Bathurst that season before the Kiwi used it for the first halfof 2003.

He stepped back into it in the firstpart of 2004 for Kmart Racing (including finishing third at Pukekohe in it),before taking it with him across to the Kees and Paul Weel-run Supercheap Autoteam for 2005.

While Murphy may not be drivingfull-time in V8 Supercars this year, there’s no doubting his position as theKing of Pukekohe in the category.

He won a non-championship event for theHolden Racing Team in 1996 before dominating his home event when it became apart of the V8 Supercars Championship in 2001.

Driving for Kmart Racing, he won thefirst three rounds held there between 2001 and 2003 and finished third overallin 2004 before moving across to Supercheap Auto Racing for 2005 and sealinganother round win.

In 2005 Murphy qualified fourth behindCraig Lowndes, Marcos Ambrose and Steven Richards, but could not be stoppedfrom winning all three races.

Not even a red flag and subsequentdelay in Race 3 – brought out after a large accident between Paul Dumbrell andCraig Baird – was enough to stop Murphy, as he claimed victory and celebratedin the dark after the late finish.

Murphy is still racing this year in theNew Zealand V8 SuperTourer Series in a Commodore and will drive for the HoldenRacing Team in the V8 Supercar endurance races, starting with the Sandown 500in September.

His 2005 Pukekohe-winning car will bein action on racetracks across Australia this year as part of the six-round V8Touring Car Series, which has its next round at Mallala in South Australia onApril 20/21.

One-week prior, the V8 SupercarsChampionship will return to Pukekohe for the ITM400 Auckland – it will be thefirst time since 2007 the category has competed at the historic venue.

While the car featured today won the2005 Pukekohe event, next weekend we’ll take a look on Saturday Sleuthing atthe histories of the cars that conquered Pukekohe between 2001 and 2007 as wecount down to the ITM400 Auckland on April 12-14.

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