Murray out to turn difficult rookie season around in Perth

Erebus Motorsport rookie Cooper Murray is hopeful that the Bosch Power Tools Perth Super 440 can mark the beginning of a turnaround after a difficult opening to the 2025 Repco Supercars Championship.

The 23-year-old, who turned heads in Triple Eight's wildcard Camaro last year at Darwin and the enduros, currently sits 23rd in points, and last of the drivers who have contested all four events this season.

A two-time Super2 race winner, including a debut win at Newcastle in 2023, Murray has shown plenty of speed throughout the season to date, but has been caught up in several incidents.

Last start in Tasmania, Murray scored a berth in the Boost Mobile Top Ten Shootout, only for a mistake at the first corner on Lap 1 to see him spin to the rear of the field after clattering Anton De Pasquale.

"Obviously it hasn't really been what we'd hoped, but on the positive side the pace has been really, really good," Murray told Supercars.com.

"There's been some really good positives, we qualified fifth and third at the Grand Prix in our second round which was cool, and then we've also done a top 10 in qualifying at Taupō and also the Shootout, so the pace is definitely there, the car is quick, it's just about executing all the one percenters now."

For the first time this season, Murray heads to a circuit where he has previous race experience in Supercars machinery, having raced at Wanneroo for the past two seasons in Super2.

In four Super2 starts Murray claimed two podiums, and was the Saturday polesitter in 2024, however was more notably disqualified from Sunday for his involvement in the incident that sent Cameron McLeod barrel rolling down the back straight.

"I'm really looking forward to heading to a track where I've done some decent racing at. My Super2 results there were strong, I'm really confident we're going to roll out with a good car as well this weekend, and really get the ball rolling and be on it from Practice 1."

Murray has enjoyed his time alongside two-time Supercars race winner Jack Le Brocq in 2025, having filled in for the 32-year-old at last year's Adelaide 500 after departing mid-weekend for the birth of his daughter Romy.

Although Le Brocq is off-contract at the end of the year, Murray insists that he is enjoying learning off the seven-year veteran, and believes that they can both push Erebus back towards the front of the pack.

"He's been really good, he's got a lot of experience in the category which comes in handy.

"I've really liked working with Jack this year in my rookie season, and I'm looking forward to continuing our relationship as teammates and working together to make sure that we get the Erebus team further up the grid where they belong."

Murray's focus for the remainder of the season is to make the most of his strong one lap pace, and begin converting into strong race results, primarily by limiting mistakes.

Murray is also confident about his prospects at the Enduro Cup later this season, where he will pair up with highly-touted 21-year-old Erebus junior, and former Super2 rival, Jobe Stewart.

"This last half of the season I'd really like to execute the results that we do, so go out there and qualify well. The speed is there, so now it's just focussing on myself and executing and maximising the result that we can get on the day and minimising the mistakes.

"Come enduro time with Jobe, I'm really looking forward to that, he's a really quick young kid, I raced him in Super2 as well, and he's done a few laps in the Gen3 this year and he's been on the ball straight away.

"There's no reason come enduro time that we can't be a force to be reckoned with."

On-track action at the Bosch Power Tools Perth Super 440 begins tomorrow with two half-hour practice sessions at 12:05pm AWST/2:05pm AEST and 1:55pm AWST/3:55pm AEST. Tickets for the event are on sale now.