Murphy Guns For Another New Zealand Title In Annual Hometown Pilgrimage

If Australian racing great Peter Brock is Bathurst's King of the Mountain, then Greg Murphy is the undisputed emperor of the Rolling
Hills of Pukekohe in New Zealand.

The New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based driver has dominated the circuit for five years. He's won there four out of the five times the V8 Supercar Championship Series has raced at the circuit and last year
scored a straight hat trick.

Murphy heads back this weekend for the second round of the 2006 V8 Supercar Championship Series vying for yet another title at the super
fast circuit.

Still pursuing a Championship title after a decade in the current Series, the four-time Bathurst-winning Murphy is somewhat perplexed by his success at Pukekohe, to the extent that he's modestly apologetic
when pushed to explain his dominance there.

"I'm sorry I can't give you any definitive answers," Murphy says.

"I've thought about this a lot because I'm always being asked that question, but I have no idea. I'd like to know, because then I could use
it to my advantage in other races."

Spend a few minutes chatting with Murphy though and the answer is clear, even if he doesn't know it - he drives that home track with passionate national pride and honour like that of the mighty All Blacks when they
defend their soil.

"I get huge support and I'm very proud I suppose when I go back there. I like racing in front of a New Zealand crowd. I'm a Kiwi driving in an Australian championship and to have a race back in New Zealand as part
of that championship is pretty special."

The Kiwi driver is a standout favourite again even if his first-up results have been mediocre. Ask any of the hundreds of fans waiting in an autograph queue in Auckland who they've come to see, and the
unanimous response will be, "Murph, of course!"

But the Supercheap Auto Racing Team star is very aware how fickle his support can be, and that his popularity is linked inextricably to his
performance.

"In a couple weeks it might all come to a screaming halt. This year might be the start of a long slide backwards. I'm not sure, I hope it's
not, I'd hate not to be successful there," Murphy said.

"That's what's even harder, I've got so used to going well there if things don't go well and we have a bit of a slide in the results, it'd
be devastating.

"But if you don't perform you disappear into obscurity. If you slip to the back of the field you're probably not going to be the favourite any more. If you please the fans they enjoy that and give you their support
and that's fantastic."

After a disappointing 2005 season that saw him place 11th in the Championship and a disastrous start to 2006 in Adelaide where his #51 car was completely wrecked in race two, Murphy isn't confident going
into this year's home round.

"I feel a bit apprehensive. There are cars out there that have shown they do have better speed than we have. We're still the chaser, not the
chased."

Among the teams Murphy lists as his greatest challengers this year are HRT, Toll HSV, Jack Daniel's Racing and Team Betta Electrical.

But maybe the team that wants to dethrone the reigning champ more than any other is one with a strong sentimental attachment to the Pukekohe
track itself.

Ross and Jimmy Stone, co-owners of Stone Brothers Racing, hail from a small town not far from Pukekohe. For Ross Stone, the track is an old
stomping ground.

"When we were younger we used to test our cars on that track. We've probably done more laps on that circuit than anyone else in the Series,"
Ross Stone said.

"Pukekohe's a special place. Some racetracks just have really good atmosphere; they sound right and feel right. We'd like to win there;
it'd be nice to win there."

With only two more years before the round leaves Pukekohe for good, the team is running out of time to claim what has so far eluded SBR.

An SBR driver has won the last three V8 Supercar Championship Series but despite being on the podium at Pukekohe, no SBR driver has ever claimed
a round victory there.

If it's strong local support and not a driver-track match that's put Murphy on the podium in New Zealand more often than not, then he won't be bothered the 2008 round will be a street race held in Hamilton, about
an hour's drive south of Pukekohe.

But he does face increasing competition for the morale-boosting
parochial crowd.

Murphy is one of several Kiwi drivers in the Series and now a New Zealand V8 Supercar team, Team Kiwi Racing, is based just kilometres
away from the track, near Auckland airport.

TKR owner David John says Murphy might be the crowd's favourite driver but his team's All Black Holden with the emblematic silver fern along
its sides ignites old trans-Tasman rivalries.

"The hometown crowd always wants to see the underdog do well. Greg Murphy is a Kiwi driver but driving for an Australian team. We're a 100% New Zealand-funded team. It's the New Zealand versus Australia attitude
than comes out at Pukekohe for us."

John predicts TKR will finish in the lower top-ten this year and won't pose any real threat to Murphy. But what does the Emperor himself
predict?

Like the reason he's so triumphant on his home circuit, he's mysterious.

"People love to make big quotes and say a lot about how they're going to go in the year and I never do, I hold my cards pretty close to my
chest."

Auckland's Pukekohe Park Raceway hosts Round Two of the 2006 V8 Supercar
Championship Series from April 21-23.

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