New Zealand motor racing legend Greg Murphy turned up for the third round of the GVI.Kiwi Formula Open New Zealand (FONZ) series at Taupo International Motor Sport Park on Sunday to replace Kaleb Ngatoa who had a last-minute call to race the BRM team S5000 in the support races for the Supercars in Adelaide.
Murphy who was more than happy to take over the controls of the Formula Atlantic car, a model he himself raced thirty years ago. It didn’t take Murphy long to get into the swing of things and he soon had the J.A Russell DB4’s Toyota 4AGE twin cam singing. It took him only a few laps to familiarise himself with the car. He clearly is still a very quick contender as he was fastest in the David Oxton Cup for Formula Atlantics and took pole position overall. He announced after qualifying how amazed he was at the grip these things have and how it brought many good memories back for him.
He was not to have things all his own way as reigning FONZ Champion Zac Christensen racing an ex TRS Ali-Art Castings sponsored Tatuus FT50 set the fastest time in the Graeme Lawrence Cup to be alongside Murphy on the front row.
Former two-times national Formula Ford champion, Alex Crosbie, also in a TRS Tatuus FT50 sponsored by Stresscrete Southland, was next up. A very impressive Toby McCormack was alongside him in the first of the Tatuus FT40’s contesting the Jim Palmer Cup. What made it impressive was not only was he the fastest FT40, but he was quicker than the remaining Formula Atlantic and the other FT50’s and FT40.
Race one saw Murphy lead from the rolling start with a fast-starting Crosbie getting up to second and from then on ensued a game of cat and mouse as Greg’s experience kept him out of reach of the battling FT50’s behind him.
On the opening lap Garry Rush, in the Hydraulink Swift DB4, went from the back to fifth only to have the back-end break loose through turn three turning the ground effect Atlantic into the equivalent of a Flymo lawnmower.
For nine laps Crosbie and Christensen battled each other until entering the Chase off the back straight Zac left his breaking very late and went across the grass with little steering and re-entering the track right in front of Alex who took to the kitty litter to avoid him. Both returned to the track by which time Murphy had disappeared up the road and took the win in the David Oxton Cup as well as the on-track victory.
Race 2 and once again Greg Murphy led from the start this time Gary Rush got a blinder in the other Atlantic and was up to second briefly before first Alex Crosbie got past and then Zac Christensen followed suit. From there on the race continued as in the first race with Alex Crosbie trying everything he might to get past his much more experienced competitor. Zac Christensen seemed to develop an issue with the car and wasn’t quite on the pace and drifted back from the front two. Gary Rush hung on for a while and kept his fourth place despite a late race charge from Toby McCormack in the Simple Green entered Tatuus FT40 and winning the Jim Palmer Cup section of the race.
The final Race of the day was the fifteen lapper and was sure to test the endurance of the older competitors. All the young guns were fired up and ready to take advantage of any fatigue shown by their more experienced compatriots. However, the only fatigue that was demonstrated was by the cars themselves.
First to go was Paul Couper in the Tyre-Pro Tatuus FT40 with an unknown gremlin that seems to keep rearing its head. Next out was Zac Christensen with a broken front wing, probably as a result of his trip through grass in the previous race.
This left Crosbie in a position where he did not have to defend and he could concentrate all his efforts on the former four-time Bathurst and NZIGP winner and with three laps left to run he was in an extremely good position to pounce if Greg made a mistake.
However, Murph’s luck ran out as a wheel came loose and he had to limp back to the pits. This gifted the race win to Crosbie who also won the Graeme Lawrence Cup race with Toby Mc Cormack coming home second on the road but winning the Jim Palmer Cup race and this left Gary Rush third on the road but winning the David Oxton Cup race.
The next round is January back at Taupo as a support class for the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship. It will be a great opportunity for race fans to watch cars that have contested the New Zealand premier single seater classes from back in the 1980’s up until the current cars with up to twelve Formula Atlantics, eight ex TRS Tatuus FT40’s and ten ex TRS FT50’s
Round winners
David Oxton Cup for Formula Atlantics Gary Rush 67 Points
Jim Palmer Cup for Tatuus FT40 Toby Mc Cormack 82 Points
Graeme Lawrence Cup Alex Crosbie 82 Points
Overall round winner Howden Ganley Cup Alex Crosbie/Toby Mc Cormack
| Howden Ganley Cup | |||
| # | Competitor | Vehicle | Total Points |
| 86 | Toby McCormack | Tatuus FT40 | 246 |
| 27 | Gary Rush | Swift DB 4 | 184 |
| 63 | Alex Crosbie | Tatuus FT50 | 182 |
| 2 | Kaleb Ngatoa | Swift DB 4 | 164 |
| 3 | Geoff Harriman | Tatuus FT50 | 142 |
| 48 | Kaden Probst | Tatuus FT50 | 135 |
| 47 | Paul Couper | Tatuus FT40 | 125 |
| 20 | Hayden Bakkerus | Tatuus FT50 | 91 |
| 8 | Zac Kristenesn | Tatuus FT50 | 88 |
| 2 | Greg Murphy | Swift DB 4 | 57 |
| 14 | Leo Francis | Tatuus FT50 | 46 |
| 10 | Rhys Humphries | Reynard 93H | 34 |
| 6 | Ethan Sillay | Reynard 93H | 19 |
| 98 | Richard Crabb | Tatuus FT50 | 14 |
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