A lap of Pukekohe with Greg Murphy.
No one knows Pukekohe better than Greg Murphy, the Kmart Racing V8 Supercar driver earning himself legendary status in his homeland New Zealand with a succession of three straight victories in the Placemakers V8 International.
On paper it may not look like an exciting track, but the 2.8km circuit, just outside of Auckland, is considered one of the most technical and challenging in the series, and difficult to master. These are Murph's secrets to a fast lap in his Kmart Racing Holden VY Commodore...
No one knows Pukekohe better than Greg Murphy, the Kmart Racing V8 Supercar driver earning himself legendary status in his homeland New Zealand with a succession of three straight victories in the Placemakers V8 International.
On paper it may not look like an exciting track, but the 2.8km circuit, just outside of Auckland, is considered one of the most technical and challenging in the series, and difficult to master. These are Murph's secrets to a fast lap in his Kmart Racing Holden VY Commodore...
"You are hooking up sixth gear as you come down the hill and cross the start-finish line, trying hard to get the maximum speed from the car as you head into turn one. The first turn is a very fast right hand sweeper, the car hitting over 250 km/h just before you give the brakes a hard push and drop down to fifth gear, scrubbing off speed but still carrying momentum as you turn in.
"Through the sweeper you need to feather the throttle, getting the Kmart Commodore over on the white line on the inside right of the track. You have to make sure you don't move away from the line as you set the car up for turn two, the track opening up and straightening towards the esses.
"As you enter the second corner, you need to brake hard, change down to third and use all the road, hitting the inside left kerb hard so as to straight-line turn three and set yourself up for the fourth corner and the run onto the back straight.
"Turn four is hard on the Commodore's brakes again, down to second, the momentum through the right-hander onto the back straight critical for gaining the maximum terminal speed on the fastest section of the racetrack.
"Onto the back straight and it's foot flat to the floor as you go up through the box from second to sixth, the length of the straight giving you the opportunity for a little bit of a break. The throttle is wide open through the slight kink and over the crest, with the engine banging on the 7,500rpm limiter and the speed reaching towards 275 km/h as you head towards the Holden Hairpin - the aerodynamics of the Kmart Commodore helping it to sit nicely on the track.
"It's quite a dramatic change going from the fastest to slowest part of the circuit, you need to brake as hard, but also as late as possible while trying hard not to lock a wheel into the turn.
"It's quickly down to second gear, the speed having dropped over 200 km/h to just on 60km/h as you turn hard right, the rear wheel traction extremely important for drive out the turn as you accelerate towards the fast sweeping left hand turn six.
"Quickly up the 'box to fifth gear, the sweeping left has a big, hard bump and if the car doesn't ride it well it can upset the drive as you run towards the right hand turn seven sweeper and up over the hill.
"Through turn six and towards seven - it's important here that you carry the speed and get on the accelerator early, use all the road available as you sweep right and up over the hill and accelerate down back to the start-finish line.
"That's a quick lap of the 2.82km Pukekohe circuit, one that's taken a little under one minute to complete and, hopefully, one that was faster than everyone else!"
