R2 PREV – Murphy, Ingall unrepentant ahead of Island rematch
11/4/2003 17:16 (V8 Wire - Jason Whittaker) -
Simmering tensions in the V8 Supercar paddock threaten to boil over this weekend, as the circus heads to Victoria’s windswept Phillip Island Raceway for round two of the championship series.
Kmart Racing’s Greg Murphy, who clocked the fastest time in today’s free practice session, opened old wounds this week when, one year on from the start line skirmish that saw Jason Bargwanna spectacularly flip his Commodore, the Kiwi declared he’d pull the same move on Bargwanna again.
"I maintain what I said at the time, and that is that I would do it again if a similar set of circumstances arose," said Murphy, who was disqualified from the race.
"I was driving in a straight line down the edge of the circuit and I would have had to have driven off the circuit to avoid him. He just didn't give me any racing room, so there's no doubt in my mind that Bargwanna caused the accident," he said.
Bargwanna’s Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden sustained more than $200,000 worth of damage in the shunt, with the then-friends almost coming to blows after the race.
Now in the blue corner for Larkham Motorsport, the affable Bargwanna says he’s over it.
“Obviously he [Murphy] is not,” Bargwanna told the Herald Sun.
"I'm certainly not going to Phillip Island this Sunday to do it again. But if he did it again, I'd actually belt him, but I'd make sure I did it later," he said, referring to the $5000 suspended fine he received for the post-race altercation.
Controversy and Russell Ingall are firm friends, and the Ford firebrand was also shooting from the hip in the lead-up to Sunday’s 300km event.
Responding to calls to curb his aggressive driving style, ‘the Enforcer’ was having none of it.
"The whole thing of just churning around to get points is not good value for the drivers or the paying public," he said.
"The fans should be able to see cars and drivers racing for the win. They don't deserve to see a performance driving team – you can see that at the Easter Show."
Ingall turned Murphy around in the dying stages of Adelaide's second race in the battle for a podium position, copping a post-race time penalty.
He says while the tighter points system has some drivers playing “the percentage game” it will have no influence on his approach.
"That doesn't mean I'm going to be stupid or do anything illegal," he said, "it just means that if there is a gap, I am going to go for it. I am out there to win."
Mark Skaife has no problems with points, sitting ominously on top of the V8 Supercar championship after a near-perfect run at the Clipsal 500 in the Holden Racing Team’s new VY Commodore.
The five-time champion is more worried about tyres and how they’ll perform over the marathon 300km distance on Sunday, the longest race ever at the Grand Prix circuit.
With just two compulsory stops set down, one for tyres the other for fuel, a third stop could be employed to revive fading grip.
"We're heading into unknown territory here as 300kms around Phillip Island isn't something we've done before in this category,” Skaife said.
"The main concerns will be tyres, as the rubber was borderline last year over 150kms and some teams struggled with that. Doubling the distance brings a whole new set of questions into play.”
Today’s practice, the first of the 90-minute Friday sessions in place of extra private testing, was almost a washout as teams nursed their cars through treacherously slippery conditions.
Murphy’s one-minute 49.09sec lap was the fastest of a 21-lap run by more than two seconds.
Clipsal 500 race winner Marcos Ambrose ran a dry set-up for 13 laps before calling it day with the second-fastest time.
Dick Johnson Racing’s Max Wilson squeezed 11 laps in as conditions improved towards the end of the session and finished in 3rd.
The 35-car field has more practice and qualifying tomorrow, with the Top Ten Shootout for pole scheduled for Sunday morning.
Practice results:
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?13/04/2003.PHIL.P7
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