NEWS AND EVENTS
New Zealand’s Archibalds Historic Touring Car (HTC) Series has a new fan in four-time former Bathurst winner, and now TV motor sport show co-host, Greg Murphy.
Murphy and fellow multi– Bathurst 1000 winner Jim Richards were invited to join the grid as guest drivers in the second round of the 2019 Archibalds HTC Series at the annual Skope Classic historic motor race meeting, held at Christchurch’s Mike Pero Motorsport Park, Ruapuna in February.
Though he was doing double duty at the meeting — also demoing the high-tech Formula 1– style Rodin Fzed single-seater — the man they call ‘Murph’ showed his star quality at the wheel of local man Peter Sturgeon’s ex- Cecotto/brancatelli BMW E30 M3 Group A car. He qualified it on pole and won two of the four HTC races over the weekend.
“That car is just mega,” he said of the quick and nimble Group A two-door. He was untroubled in winning the first but spent the other three battling mightily, first with Christchurch car dealer Bruce Miles, then Motueka category-veteran Brett Stevens.
Miles got the jump on Murphy from the rolling start to win the second race in his later model ex– Prince Leopold van Bayern BMW E36 320i super tourer. Stevens then used the superior power of the turbocharged engine in his Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth Group A car to take the third — but not before swapping places with Murphy several times.
Murphy came out top again in the final race after Stevens — who had again been swapping the lead with Murphy virtually every lap — came under attack himself and had to defend second spot from race-twowinner Bruce Miles.
That gave Murphy the chance to clock his third-fastest race lap out of the four HTCS class races, easing away to take his second victory of the weekend from Stevens, Miles, and another category fast man, Dunedin’s Arron Black (BMW E30 M3 Group A).
Behind Black, Murray Cleland — in the sister E36 BMW330I super tourer to Bruce Miles’s — finally got the better of the five- car battle pack of Christchurch’s
Lindsay O’donnell ( Volvo S40 super tourer), Paul Carter (Group C Mitsubishi Starion), Jim Richards (Group C BMW 635i), and Scott O’donnell (ex– Paul Radisich Ford Mondeo super tourer).
Christchurch’s Phil Mauger ( Nissan Primera super tourer), who finished second to Murphy in the first race, flat-spotted a tyre in the final and then pulled in with two laps to go when it finally gave out.
Other highlights from the 23-strong field included NZ Touring Cars ( NZTC) BMW 320i driver Steven Kelly from Christchurch, qualifying seventh overall, and NZTC category original Kevin Pateman from Timaru finishing eighth overall in the first race in his familiar Ford Telstar V6.
Two more local drivers, Gary Johnstone (Group A Jaguar XJS V12) and Austin Mckinley (Holden Commodore VK V8 Group A), were also rarely more than a couple of car lengths further back in the field, with Dennis Ham from Dunedin driving an Nztc-spec Alfa Romeo 155 joining them to make it a three-way battle in the final.