Mixed Results for GMR in Townsville

Mixed Results for GMR in Townsville Fujitsu Series Race 1

Greg Murphy Racing has achieved a mixture of results in Race 1, Round 3 of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series at Townsville today.

The highlight of the day was achieved by Daniel Jilesen in qualifying. The New Zealand driver qualified his R & J Batteries / Earthex VE Commodore a career-best fourth, behind the cars of Andrew Thompson, Nick Percat and Jack Perkins.

The next fastest GMR driver was Geoff Emery, who qualified 12th. James Brock was 21st in his return to racing, while Tony Bates was 22nd.

In the race, Jilesen suffered a slipping clutch and fell to seventh on the opening lap. He lost a further three positions on Lap 7, falling to 10th, but was able to overtake Chaz Mostert and Tim Blanchard in the final two laps to finish eighth.

James Brock was the next best placed Greg Murphy Racing driver, bringing his Tricor / Drill Pro-sponsored entry home in 14th. Despite his recent absence from motor-racing, Brock displayed fine race-craft, working his way up to 13th on the first lap, and battling with Drew Russell and Cameron McConville.

Tony Bates finished 20th after running as high as 16th at one stage, but losing positions towards the end of the race while avoiding a spinning Taz Douglas. Geoff Emery unfortunately failed to finish after being caught up as an innocent victim in a Lap 1 incident, which also caused a lengthy safety-car intervention.

Greg Murphy Racing Managing Director Kevin Murphy provided his summary of the team’s progress.

“Today has been a pleasing day for the team overall,” he said.

“Daniel’s form in qualifying was very impressive, and it was a shame he wasn’t able to convert it into a better race result due to the slipping clutch, but at least the car came good at the end and he was able to make up a couple of places.

“James Brock has done a very good job of returning behind the wheel of a race car and while he’s taking some time to get used to the braking of the car, overall he has mad pleasing progress.

“Tony is a bit disappointed, because he was involved in some drama that wasn’t his fault, but at least he avoided damaging the car and as always, he is improving as the weekend progresses.

“Geoff probably didn’t qualify as well as he would have liked, and unfortunately he was caught up in a crash, which wasn’t his fault either. The car is all fixed and we look forward to watching Geoff charge through the field tomorrow.”

Two more Fujitsu V8 Supercar races will be held tomorrow. The next race will be a top-10 reverse-grid race, which Daniel Jilesen will start from third.

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