The 22-year-old joined the field at the Betr Darwin Triple Crown in Triple Eight Race Engineering’s wildcard entry in the continuation of its Supercheap Auto-backed programme which sees seven-time Great Race winner Lowndes help usher in a young prospect.
Finishes of 22nd and 25th were hardly anything to write home about in themselves but those statistics belie Murray’s true performance at Hidden Valley.
“Me and Craig both have a lot of confidence now we’re going into Sandown,” he told Speedcafe.
“We sort of had expectations of going out there and having fun, wherever we ended up, but I think they’ve quickly changed after this weekend.
“Being able to showcase what speed and how I can excel in an amazing Triple Eight-built car is really special, and we’ve definitely got a good chance come Sandown and Bathurst.”
The Darwin Triple Crown was Murray’s first event since he was disqualified from a Dunlop Super2 Series race at Wanneroo for his part in Cameron McLeod’s especially wild rollover.
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He was involved in another crash at Hidden Valley, when Andre Heimgartner climbed over the #888 Camaro in a concertina on the opening lap of the Sunday race at Turn 5.
Losing five laps in pit lane as his crew threw reams of ‘go-fast tape’ at the torn-up bodywork of the Supercheap Auto machine, Murray returned to the track and ended up being the fourth-fastest driver on respective fastest laps, behind Triple Eight team-mates Will Brown and Broc Feeney as well as Brad Jones Racing’s Macauley Jones.
A day earlier, Murray had set the very fastest lap of the race – which left him feeling “10-foot tall” – although he missed out on the bonus points given he failed to make the top 15, his cause not helped by being turned around midway through.
The Melburnian’s highlight, though, was making it into the Sunday Top 10 Shootout by finishing fifth in provisional qualifying.
“It’s an amazing opportunity and I couldn’t be more grateful to Triple Eight and Supercheap Auto for giving me this opportunity,” he said.
“It was amazing to make the shootout – probably that made the whole weekend – all the work that we’ve put in to showcase that was really good.
“Unfortunately, the racing didn’t go to plan – getting taken out on the first lap was unfortunate – but we managed to get the car fixed and get back out there.
“Even with a badly damaged car, we still did the fourth-fastest lap of the race.
“I just wish we could have showcased what we could have done at the front.”
Murray is accustomed to Triple Eight Supercars given he races a Gen2-spec ZB Commodore for Eggleston Motorsport in Super2, but had not driven a lower-downforce Gen3 vehicle competitively until the Darwin event.
“It was a fairly difficult challenge but, to be honest, I absolutely love the car; like they’re so fun to drive,” he remarked.
“You have to really manhandle them and, especially in the races, you’ve got to look after the tyre a lot more so there’s a lot more thinking from the driver’s point of view, and I love that part of racing.
“So, I really feel at one with the car and hopefully I can do it a lot more soon.”
Murray returns to the Super2 field at the NTI Townsville 500 on July 5-7.
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