NEW Zealander Greg Murphy is a legend of Supercars and touring car racing.
A four-time winner of the Bathurst 1000 – in 1996, 1999, 2003 and 2004 – Murphy was one of the big stars of V8 Supercar racing in the late 1990s through into the 2000s.
He began racing in his native New Zealand in karts and moved into open wheelers and tasted a Ford Sierra RS500 touring car in the Nissan Mobil races in 1992 at Wellington and Pukekohe.
Murphy took his career to Australia in 1994 in the Formula Brabham open wheeler category, also debuting in the Australian Manufacturer’s Championship for two-litre cars at Phillip Island in a Toyota Carina.
He and Brit James Kaye drove the Carina at the Tooheys 1000 that year, marking Murphy’s Bathurst 1000 ‘Great Race’ debut.
Murphy joined Brad Jones Racing in 1995 and spent two years with the team as Brad Jones’ teammate in Audi Quattros.
He joined the Holden Racing Team as an endurance driver in 1995 paired with Craig Lowndes and teamed with ‘The Kid’ to win the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 double in 1996. Murphy then took Lowndes’ place in the team’s #1 Commodore and won the end-of-season Mobil Sprints Series across Pukekohe and Wellington.
Murphy replaced Lowndes full-time at the HRT in 1997 and duo teamed up again later that year to win the Sandown 500 for the second year in a row.
The Kiwi lost his full-time drive in 1998 though returned as an endurance co-driver before joining Gibson Motorsport in 1999.
He and Steve Richards won that year’s FAI 1000 at Bathurst driving the team’s #7 Wynn’s Commodore VT.
Murphy spent one more year with the team before it moved to become a Ford team in 2001 and the Kiwi and Kmart joined Tom Walkinshaw Racing Australia (TWR Australia) in a two-car Kmart Racing team.
Murphy spent four years with the team, including back-to-back Bathurst 1000 wins alongside Rick Kelly in 2003 and 2004.
He became the ‘King of Pukekohe’ in this period, winning the very first ATCC/V8 Supercars Championship round held outside Australia in 2001 at Pukekohe in New Zealand, going on to win the round overall three more times – 2002, 2003 and 2005 – in the next four years.
He moved to the PWR Racing team driving Supercheap Auto Commodores in 2005 and spent two years with the Kees Weel-owned team before moving to Tasman Motorsport in 2007.
The team closed down at the end of 2009, opening an opportunity for Murphy to drive a Castrol EDGE-backed Commodore VE for Paul Morris Motorsports in 2010.
However this deal ended after one season and Murphy moved to Kelly Racing to drive a Pepsi Max Crew Commodore for the Melbourne-based team.
This deal lasted two years before Murphy accepted a deal to co-drive with James Courtney in the 2013 and 2014 V8 Supercar endurance races in a Holden Racing Team Commodore.
Murphy was released from his HRT endurance driving contract a year early to allow him to take up an opportunity to join the V8 Supercars Television team, serving as a full-time pit lane reporter from 2015 to early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic stopped the Supercars Championship and resulted in closed borders.
Murphy made a return to Supercars racing at the 2022 Repco Bathurst 1000 sharing a Boost Mobile-backed Erebus-run Commodore with Richie Stanaway.
In addition to his four Bathurst 1000 wins, Murphy won the 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour in a Garry Rogers Motorsport-run Holden Monaro alongside Peter Brock, Jason Bright and Todd Kelly.
Last Updated – January 9, 2024
