“Winning This Event is Something That Everyone Wanted to Achieve” - Murphy

In late October, Greg Murphy was announced as the “Fanbassador” for the VAILO Adelaide 500.  The 500 begins today, with the main event on Thursday being practice one, ahead of the showpiece 250km races on Saturday and Sunday. 

With over 400 races starts and 28 race wins, Murphy is a legend of the sport.  He, however, never won on the streets of Adelaide;

“I never managed to pull that off, I got close a couple of times but never quite got there,” Murphy reflected.

Murphy was involved in the first ever Adelaide 500, back in 1999.  The Saturday race was particularly difficult Murphy recalls, labelling it “right up there” as one of the hardest races he has ever done.   

“I was delirious on the Saturday so it’s really hard to remember.   It was just like; I don’t want to do this tomorrow.   That was pretty much how everyone felt, this is ridiculous. 

“It had to be a shock to a systems, I think some of us had got the training regimes by that stage, when I was at HRT, when I first got into supercars, Craig Lowndes and I were probably two of the first drivers to ever start a full-time training regime.”    

With the event celebrating its’ 25th showing in 2024, there has been some memories across the journey;

“I would have loved to had my name on there, [pointing to the trophy], that would have been an easy answer,” Murphy reflected. 

“Standing on the podium, I’ve got to stand on the podium and that’s one of the best things that can happen.  I would’ve loved to have been able to that a little bit more than what I did. 

“There’s lot of memories, some of them are good and some of them are not so good, ending up in the fence at turn 8 is one of the bad ones, that’s for sure.” 

Saturday will not be a fun day in the cockpit for the drivers, with a temperature of 36 degrees predicted around the circuit, it will be a warm afternoon, Murphy likened it to 1999. 

“It was like that [a 36 degree day] in 99.  We were fully underprepared.  We did not anticipate it, I think we were all absolutely terrified sitting on the grid here before we started that race. 

“No cool suits, no helmet air, no fans, nothing.  A window wound down really did nothing. 

“I think we should take away all the cool suits and the helmet air this weekend and see who can tough it out.  I think they’ve all become a little bit too soft with all that stuff personally.  

“I think they know the challenge now; everyone accepts it, they’ve prepared for it very well. 

There has been four champions from Murphy’s homeland of New Zealand, the most recent being Shane Van Gisbergen.

When asked around the continuation of his legacy in Van Gisbergen, Murphy was quick to distance himself, saying that the 16, 21, and, 22 Supercars champion is on “another level.”

Murphy instead compared Van Gisbergen to legendary New Zealand open wheel racer, Scott Dixon, who won six Indycar series as well as the famed Indianapolis 500 in 2008. 

“Shane to go and do what he’s doing in NASCAR in a predominant oval based kind of discipline you know that’s a whole other level.  [It’s] something to really look at and be proud of.  

The 500 runs until Sunday Night.