R4 PRAC - Murphy on top of Valley early
18/5/2002 11:03 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Greg Murphy is cautiously confident about his chances at Hidden Valley Raceway this weekend, round four of the V8 Supercar series, after topping the time sheets during provisional practice today.
With the tense pre-qualifying session abandoned this weekend, all 36 drivers were given 30 minutes of free practice (a maximum of ten laps).
Kmart Racing’s Murphy clocked a one-minute 9.73sec lap late in the second of two sessions to steal provisional pole from Ford spearhead Marcos Ambrose.
"I'm not going to go silly and say something stupid, we've been quick this early in the weekend before and it hasn't worked,” he said.
Murphy lies second in the championship, despite an inauspicious start to the season. He took a race win at Hidden Valley last year and, after a recent productive session at Winton Raceway, believes the race package should be strong.
"The boys have been working hard since Eastern Creek on the suspension and geometry, they've gone through everything because we've been struggling a bit. Hopefully we've turned it around."
Ambrose was happy with his day’s work, despite being bumped from top spot.
“It was good to have the car going in the right direction off the truck and we can only improve tomorrow,” he said.
The Holden Racing Team lurks ominiously behind; Mark Skaife third-fastest and Jason Bright in fourth.
Murphy's teammate Todd Kelly was fifth, ahead of Larry Perkins. Besieged Ford veteran Glenn Seton clocked the seventh-fastest time, in a promising show of early speed.
Tomorrow is moving day, including the shootout for pole and a 20-minute qualifying sprint at sundown.
Complete practice results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?19/05/2002.HIDV.P5
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