R12S S'OUT - Murph overcomes qualifying curse
10/11/2001 11:46 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Greg Murphy shook off a qualifying curse this morning to grab a most popular pole position at the NZ V8 International at Pukekohe Park Raceway.
The Kiwi became the first driver to convert provisional pole into the real thing in the grid-determining Top Ten Shootout, blitzing his 2.8km home track in his K-Mart Commodore with a 56.90s flier.
"It is just awesome to be up here in front of this fantastic crowd," he said, collecting his pole trophy on the Pukekohe podium. "They really spurred me on to get pole today.
“But this is just the start. There are three long races to go, all with pit stops and we have seen changes in races brought about through what happens in the pits so the team and I still have plenty of work to do."
He’ll share the front row with TWR stable-mate Mark Skaife, who was a tenth slower than Murphy in his factory Holden.
With Ingall back in tenth (a jammed gearbox aborted his pole challenge), Skaife collected nine of the 13 points needed in the shootout to be on the verge of his fourth Shell Series Championship.
Marcos Ambrose retained his spot on the second row, while Todd Kelly improved to fourth fastest.
Age shall not weary Larry Perkins, who held his own in the cutthroat shootout to grab fifth, ahead of Craig Lowndes, Glenn Seton and Jason Bright.
Steven Ellery lost his footing at one corner during his hot lap and fell back to ninth.
The Queenslander was disappointed with the result, noting “this track will be incredibly hard to pass on.”
Another bumper crowd of some 25,000 are eagerly anticipating the first 100km race at 4pm (2pm AEST) this afternoon.
>> TOP TEN SHOOTOUT >>
1st GREG MURPHY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore [0:56.9025min]
2nd MARK SKAIFE (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore [0:57.0313]
3rd MARCOS AMBROSE (Pirtek Racing) - AU Falcon [0:57.1585]
4th TODD KELLY (K-Mart Racing Team) - VX Commodore [0:57.1808]
5th LARRY PERKINS (Perkins Motorsport) - VX Commodore [0:57.2542]
6th CRAIG LOWNDES (Gibson Motorsport) - AU Falcon [0:57.3524]
7th GLENN SETON (Ford Tickford Racing) - AU Falcon [0:57.3687]
8th JASON BRIGHT (Holden Racing Team) - VX Commodore [0:57.5033]
9th STEVEN ELLERY (Super Cheap Auto Racing) - AU Falcon [0:58.7089]
10th RUSSELL INGALL (Perkins Motorsport) - VX Commodore [1:09.9529]
For complete warm-up/shootout results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?11/11/2001.PUK
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