Greg Murphy has shaken a hoodoo to claim a rare touring car title by winning the V8 SuperTourers Championship in a nail-biting finish at Pukekohe.
Murphy and his co-driver Jack Perkins finished second in the final 70-lap heat behind Scott McLaughlin who survived a scare in the closing laps with smoke billowing from his Supercheap Auto Holden with an apparent hub problem.
Tim Slade brought the M3 Racing Holden he shared with main driver Richard Moore home in third.
The Championship remained in the balance in the latter stages with Ant Pedersen closing on the leaders as McLaughlin and Murphy were involved in an epic dogfight for the lead with the former finally taking the #1 spot on lap 56.
Moments earlier Pedersen speared off the track in his International Motorsport Ford and dropped back to fourth before he slipped back further to eventually scramble into fifth at the finish.
Pedersen and his Aussie co-driver Chaz Mostert had finished third in the opening leg earlier in the day behind Tim Edgell and Lee Holdsworth’s Holden with McLaughlin and James Moffat finishing second.
Murphy and Perkins were fifth in the first 70-lapper which set-up the grandstand finish to the seven-round Championship as Murphy surrendered his overnight lead of one solitary point.
But the four-times Bathurst 1000 winner Murphy managed to continue his amazing run of success at the Pukekohe circuit which has proved a happy hunting ground for him in V8 Supercars and more recently in the SuperTourers.
“We were out of it and then they were out of it,” Murphy said of the rollcoaster finale.
“Anything was possible and it went from one extreme to the other. I was watching Ant in my mirrors.”
Pedersen tried valiantly however his efforts proved fruitless as he fought his Ford that was struggling with tyre wear.
“We just didn’t have the car to fight with, it’s very simple really,” Pedersen said.
“We were struggling with the tyres late in the race.”
Nick Percat, recently confirmed as a full-time driver for Walkinshaw Racing in the V8 Supercars main game for 2014, staged a remarkable drive from the rear to finish seventh in the final heat alongside Paul Manuell in the third M3 Racing Holden.
After taking the heat one win yesterday, Shane van Gisbergen’s Championship hopes ended when his co-driver Alex Davison experienced a mechanical failure after just two laps in the opening 70-lap heat.
See below for results of heat 2
| 1 | Edgell/Holdsworth | 1:18:58.973 | 70 |
| 2 | McLaughlin/Moffat | 1:19:00.087 | 70 |
| 3 | Pedersen/Mostert | 1:19:09.510 | 70 |
| 4 | Moore/Slade | 1:19:09.830 | 70 |
| 5 | Murphy/Perkins | 1:19:28.322 | 70 |
| 6 | Heimgartner/Morris | 1:19:31.499 | 70 |
| 7 | McIntyre/Luff | 1:19:39.160 | 70 |
| 8 | Booth/Davies | 1:20:02.689 | 70 |
| 9 | Gaunt/Waite | 1:19:05.349 | 69 |
| 10 | Evans/Reid | 1:19:11.935 | 69 |
| 11 | Fogg/Wood | 1:19:20.384 | 69 |
| 12 | Baird/Lockwood | 1:19:41.284 | 69 |
| 13 | Jacobson/Emery | 1:19:53.423 | 69 |
| 14 | Storey/Gibson | 1:20:39.906 | 69 |
| 15 | Cunningham/D’Alberto | 1:19:54.059 | 66 |
| 16 | McLennan/Waters | 1:19:41.739 | 56 |
| DNF | Manuell/Percat | 1:17:22.441 | 45 |
| DNF | Bell/Owen | 26:37.124 | 24 |
| DNF | van Gisbergen/Davison | 02:19.204 | 2 |
See below for results of heat 3
| 1 | McLaughlin/Moffat | 1:20:00.025 | 70 |
| 2 | Murphy/Perkins | 1:20:01.620 | 70 |
| 3 | Moore/Slade | 1:20:01.814 | 70 |
| 4 | Edgell/Holdsworth | 1:20:12.475 | 70 |
| 5 | Pedersen/Mostert | 1:20:14.456 | 70 |
| 6 | McIntyre/Luff | 1:20:15.433 | 70 |
| 7 | Manuell/Percat | 1:20:22.292 | 70 |
| 8 | Fogg/Wood | 1:20:42.576 | 70 |
| 9 | Jacobson/Emery | 1:20:47.741 | 70 |
| 10 | Bell/Owen | 1:20:57.476 | 70 |
| 11 | Booth/Davies | 1:21:09.415 | 70 |
| 12 | Heimgartner/Morris | 1:22:33.153 | 70 |
| 13 | Storey/Gibson | 1:20:26.629 | 69 |
| DNF | Gaunt/Waite | 1:15:23.249 | 65 |
| DNF | Evans/Reid | 1:01:15.592 | 53 |
| DNF | Cunningham/D’Alberto | 33:20.836 | 30 |
| DNF | McLennan/Waters | 1:19:09.764 | 20 |
| DNF | Baird/Lockwood | 03:30.706 | 3 |
