COOPER Murray. Remember the name.
The Eggleston Motorsport driver last month became the ninth driver in history to win his very first Super2 race.
What’s more? Six of the eight names he has joined on that list are now Supercars Championship race winners.
Murray got the job done by converting pole position at Newcastle, although he had to do it the hard way, losing the sprint to the first corner before catching and passing veteran Jack Perkins.
As Murray enters Round 2 this weekend at Wanneroo Raceway just 18 points off series leader Zak Best, V8 Sleuth takes the opportunity to look back at Super2’s other first-up winners.
Wayne Wakefield (2000, Round 1)
Driving an ex-Neil Crompton #97 Holden VS Commodore, Wakefield took victory in the category’s first ever race.
Wakefield rose from fifth on the grid to pip Matt White with a winning margin of just 0.104s.
He won another three Super2 races and most notably co-drove with Marcos Ambrose when the latter took pole position for his maiden Bathurst 1000.
David Besnard (2000, Round 4)
One of Supercars’ great enigmas, Besnard burst onto the scene during a partial second-tier campaign with Stone Brothers Racing, winning four races from six starts (and finishing third in the other two).
He was subsequently promoted to a 2001 main game seat as part of an all-rookie Stone Brothers Racing line-up with Ambrose as his teammate.
He would ultimately wind up with two Supercars Championship race wins, but not quite the level of success he’d once seemed destined for.
Simon Wills (2001, Round 1)
Wills made an immediate mark, taking pole position and victory in his first attempt at the 2001 Wakefield Park season-opener.
Aboard a Gibson Motorsport-built, Team Dynamik-run VT Commodore, the Kiwi went on to win the title on the back of 10 race wins.
Wills graduated to make solo starts for the likes of Briggs Motor Sport, Team Dynamik and Brad Jones Racing but coincidentally, his sole victory came alongside Besnard in the 2002 Queensland 500 for SBR.
Mark Winterbottom (2003, Round 1)
Winterbottom brings up 600 Supercars Championship race starts this weekend in Perth but it was 20 years ago that he romped to the 2003 Super2 crown.
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Just like Wills had done two years prior, Winterbottom conquered Wakefield Park on debut, winning from pole position.
Winterbottom’s Super2 record reads eight wins from 16 starts, and pole at every round bar Adelaide (where he qualified second behind Owen Kelly).
Alan Gurr (2004, Round 1)
Gurr became the latest Wakefield Park debutant winner, driving the Paul Morris Motorsport chassis named ‘BAM BAM’ for Robert Smith Racing (as Lee Holdsworth’s teammate).
He finished the season with Holden Young Lions but would not add to his victory tally.
At Supercars Championship level, Gurr enjoyed a top 10 finish alongside John Faulkner in the 2005 Bathurst 1000. His sole full-time season would arrive in 2007 via Britek Motorsport.
Greg Ritter (2004, Round 6)
Ritter starred in a one-off appearance for Speed FX Racing at Mallala, taking pole and two wins in the very AU Falcon which had powered Winterbottom’s title the previous season.
By that time, Ritter had already accumulated 28 main game starts, but the Mallala hitout proved the perfect preparation for his SBR enduro campaign with Ambrose, the duo winning the 2004 Sandown 500 three weeks later.
Ritter raced full-time for Ford Performance Racing for the bulk of the 2005 season and remained a regular co-driver through until the end of 2014.
James Moffat (2009, Round 1)
Coming off seasons in Australian Formula Ford and Carrera Cup, the Sonic Motor Racing Services protégé immediately shone on the streets of Adelaide to beat polesitter David Russell to the first race win of the season.
That result came aboard an ex-Triple Eight BF Falcon raced by Craig Lowndes throughout 2008.
After a two-year apprenticeship, Moffat went on to drive full-time for Dick Johnson Racing (Ford), Kelly Racing (Nissan) and Garry Rogers Motorsport (Volvo/Holden).
His resume currently boasts two race wins, and he’s now in his sixth straight season co-driving for Tickford Racing – ironically the exact role in which he first broke into the top tier in 2010.
Cameron McConville (2010, Round 3)
McConville’s story is a little different to others on this list, in that he’d made 314 Supercars Championship starts – and won a solo race – before winning on Super2 debut.
The first of his three Super2 rounds for Eggleston Motorsport came at Winton, where he overcame polesitter Steve Owen to take the honours in Race 1.
Driving the VE Commodore which Rick Kelly had raced in 2007, McConville also won the third and final leg of the Winton round.
Later that year, he and Garth Tander combined to deliver the Holden Racing Team victory at the Gold Coast 600.
