Murray eager to build on Darwin speed in enduros

Cooper Murray is eager to build on his sensational Supercars debut in Darwin at the upcoming Penrite Oil Sandown 500 and Repco Bathurst 1000.

Murray showed incredible speed in his first weekend in the main game, setting the fastest lap of the race in his first career start, where he finished 22nd.

The 23-year-old then stunned the paddock in Sunday qualifying, where he provisionally qualified in fifth, securing passage into the Top Ten Shootout.

Any chance of a strong result was taken away on the first lap of Race 12, when he was involved in a dramatic collision with Andre Heimgartner.

It has been a similar story in Murray's Super2 season with Eggleston Motorsport, where he finds himself mired in 21st having only been classified in two of the six races.

Despite this, Murray is eager to make his first enduro starts in Supercars, and says there is no better driver to pair up with than six time Sandown 500 winner and seven time Bathurst 1000 winner Craig Lowndes.

“I learnt a lot from my pretty incredible main-game debut in Darwin. It was a nonstop weekend of learning, and it was awesome to be able to put our true pace together on Sunday and get into the shootout, which was really cool," reflected Murray.

"Unfortunately, we had a car run over us in the race, but it’s all fixed now and ready to go. It was cool to show that the car's fast, I'm fast and that we could be out the front.

“Considering I've already driven a Super2 car at both Sandown and Bathurst, it'll be a bit easier than going into Darwin where I’d never driven a Supercar there before, only a Porsche Cup car.

"It was a bit of learning on the go and had me probably a bit behind the eight-ball compared to the others. But going into Sandown and Bathurst, I'm quite confident that I'll be able to be on the pace, straight away.

“It's every kid's dream to be able to share the car with Lowndesy for Sandown and the Bathurst. He's got a lot of experience behind him."

Murray also says that Lowndes' experience will be invaluable to his learning across the enduro campaign, with Lowndes having already been on hand in Darwin to offer advice between broadcasting commitments.

"To have someone of that calibre at my disposal, I'm going to be a sponge, learn as much as I can off him and hopefully, I can teach him a couple of things, but I doubt it," Murray added.

“I think if we can get through the weekend and complete every lap in the race, that would be the goal. But if we could come away with potentially a top 10, that would be pretty cool.

"I personally think we can do a bit better than that, but let's just see how it goes and hopefully, we come away with a good result.”

The 2024 enduro campaign will be the fourth consecutive season that Triple Eight will run their wildcard program, once again pairing up a veteran with a rising star.

The likes of Broc Feeney, Declan Fraser, and Zane Goddard have all passed through the wildcard program since it first appeared at Bathurst in 2021.

Speaking at a livery launch earlier today, showing off a revised Supercheap Auto livery to be run at the enduros, Lowndes was full of praise for his young co-driver, saying that he has a big future in Supercars.

“Cooper is a great young talent and I think that he needs the opportunity to showcase what he can do, and Darwin showcased that. He was in the Top Ten Shootout for the first time in an event, which was incredible," said Lowndes.

"Unfortunately, the race didn't go to plan, but that's motor racing. But he is a bright young kid, really enthusiastic about it and is extremely methodical about how he goes about his preparation.

“To be honest, what we'd like to achieve, and I’ve said it the last couple of years, I'd like to be on the podium at these races. I think that's the style of racing I really enjoy. The endurance side of racing in Supercars, I really love it.

“For Cooper, he's done many laps around Sandown in a Porsche. He was extremely quick at Bathurst early this year in his Super2 car. So, for both races, we are really excited.

"Even personally, I'm really excited and looking forward to trying to achieve a strong result, not only at Sandown coming up, but Bathurst very soon.”

The 2024 Repco Supercars Championship shifts into enduro mode at the Penrite Oil Sandown 500 from September 13-15. Tickets for the 60th anniversary event are on sale now.