Greg Murphy will climb behind the wheel of his Castrol EDGE Commodore for practice at Phillip Island on Friday before he makes a decision on whether he will be fit or not to race in this weekend’s L&H 500.
Murphy is still recovering from back surgery just two weeks ago for an injury he received when on holiday in Fiji with his family recently.
The four-time Bathurst winner says his recovery has gone better than expected, but rates himself an 80/20 chance of making the race – the decision resting on whether he can repeatedly brake the heavy V8 Supercar as required.
“I am definitely going to jump into the Castrol Edge Commodore Friday for some laps, but I can’t guarantee I’ll be racing,” Murphy said.
“My back is heaps better, but until I get into the car and do some laps I won’t know if I will have repeatability of braking effort.
“My doctor said that I need to judge things myself based on the pain factor. The back’s fixed, but the wound from surgery is also still healing. At this stage I’d say it was 80/20 – that’s not definite, but it’s better than the 50/50 chance of a week ago.”
If Murphy does rule himself out, 23 year old debutant Tim Blanchard will move into main driver role while Daniel Gaunt will step in to partner Blanchard – the 25 year old Kiwi having tested with the team last week and waiting on standby.
Blanchard, who is currently running second in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar ‘development’ series in his debut year, said he isn’t feeling any extra pressure.
“I really hope Murph can race, I’ve been looking forward to driving with him, he’s a great driver with a lot of experience to learn from and advice to offer,” Blanchard said.
“If he can’t race my instructions don’t change, I’ll just have to do more laps. Paul [team owner Paul Morris] has told me just to keep up a reasonable pace, stay on the lead lap and don’t scratch the car.
“There’s no expectation on me to win, so if we can achieve our goal we should be in the top 15 as a minimum, possibly top 10.”
Blanchard tested the #51 Castrol EDGE Commodore with Gaunt under the watchful eye of Morris and Supercheap Auto Racing stable mate Russell Ingall at Queensland Raceway last week.
“The test was very good, and a lot of it was a new experience for me,” Blanchard said.
“We did a few long runs with full fuel tanks, practiced pit stops and driver changes – the enduros require a different approach to what I’m used to.
“Both Daniel and I got good seat time and we achieved everything we set out to on the day. Now we’re just waiting for Phillip Island to begin and Murph to make the call. Either way, I feel comfortable.”
Blanchard is one of Australian motor racing’s brightest rising stars.
He won the Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2007 before finishing runner-up in the British FFord title and claiming second in the British FFord Festival – the category’s unofficial world championship – the following year.
He made his Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series debut in Adelaide earlier this year.
Practice for the L&H 500 Phillip Island kicks off at the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit this Friday with two individual qualifying and two qualifying races for each car’s drivers to follow on Saturday – the combined results of Saturday’s races determining the starting grid for Sunday’s L&H 500.
