MOTORSPORT: Bathurst top ten shoot out favours Murphy
Sun shines on Greg Murphy, while black clouds hover over Winterbottom in BathurstThe weather gods smiled on Greg Murphy during the Top 10 Shootout at Bathurst when it started raining at the top of The Mountain before the last three drivers – the quickest in normal qualifying – went out.
Murphy, whose last pole at Bathurst was his sensational ‘lap of the gods’ in 2003, was fifth out in dry conditions and he posted a solid 2:08.80sec lap to be quickest to that stage. His time would not be bettered.
It was an unexpected but great result for the popular veteran (at 39?) who has had a tough year and is only 15th in the championship. Murphy’s time was just 0.08sec quicker than Will Davison who will start alongside him on the front row tomorrow.
Craig Lowndes was third quickest (2:09.21) from James Courtney (2:09.23), Shane van Gisbergen (2:09.38), Steve Owen (2:09.51) and David Reynolds (2:10.14), who probably should have been quicker given his qualifying form.
Next was Jamie Whincup, whose heart must have sank when it began raining during his warmup lap and, after a big moment at turn two on his hot lap, he backed off for a 2:26.60 – he’d already had one crash this weekend. Provisional pole man Garth Tander was last out and although it had stopped raining at the top, conditions were still treacherous and he did a careful 2:31.39 to start ninth.
He was preceded by Mark Winterbottom who encountered worse conditions than Tander and toured around for a 2:52.06, relegating him to tenth after qualifying second. Of course, it stopped raining at the end of the session and the sun came out; such is Bathurst.
Report from official V8 Supercar YouTube channel
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