Murphy and RaceLab hit fine form at Teretonga

The form of Cormac Murphy and his Race Lab team was the talk of Teretonga today as three practice sessions suggested the youngster will be a pace setter this weekend at the third round of the Bridgestone GR86 Championship.

Race Lab’s Dion Pitt – who’s speed in Toyota 86s and around Teretonga is well-respected – has jumped into the car this weekend instead of working on engineering side of the team’s operations and it had an immediate effect in Friday’s first session. Team mate Murphy went fastest of all, and Pitt finished the session in second place.

Cooper Barnes – a star in the Australian GR86 championship – was third quickest as he continued to show pace around the Teretonga circuit, while Taupo race winners Emerson Vincent and Hayden Bakkerus made up the top five. Following the Thursday form, the first 24 cars were covered by a tiny nine tenths of a second.

The sense that Race Lab might have hit the sweet spot for the Teretonga weekend was heightened even more in the second session when Cormac hit the top of the timesheets again – going even quicker than he had in the first session.

“We did make some changes overnight based on Dion’s input after driving the car yesterday and it’s fair to say it’s now doing exactly what I want it to do, but we know how close it is so we’ll carry on working to improve it even further.” explained Murphy.

That upturn in form was born out by Pitt’s form in the second session too – the series returnee this time going third fastest with only Hampton Downs pole position winner Arthur Broughan between him and Murphy.

Emerson Vincent showed pace again for fourth while another who seemed to make a step up was Mason Potter – the former Formula Ford winner hitting the top five and lapping only nine one hundredths of a second behind pace setter Murphy. Hugo Allan and Justin Allen – both featuring at the sharp end of the points table after two rounds of the championship – were also in the mix and just a whisker off the fastest time.

Full of confidence in his car – Murphy went quickest again in the third and final session of the day to edge Allan, who also had a fine final run out around the 2.4km track ahead of the weekend’s action.

Chris White went third quickest ahead of Omokoroa student Hayden Lines and Pitt.