{"id":104878,"date":"2025-10-28T08:35:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T08:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/104878\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T08:35:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T08:35:11","slug":"supercars-legend-greg-murphys-son-targets-toyota-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/104878\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars legend Greg Murphy\u2019s son targets Toyota title"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Greg
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGreg Murphy’s son Cormac Murphy. Image: Bruce Jenkins<\/p>\n

Murphy has switched teams this season from Race Lab Academy to Syndicate Motorsport.<\/p>\n

The one-make series is New Zealand\u2019s equivalent of ther Toyota Gazoo Racing Australia GR Cup, which features identical Toyota GR 86 coupes.<\/p>\n

The Bridgestone GR86 Championship begins at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park on October 31-November 2 as part of the NextGen NZ Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor this season, I have focussed on improving my mindset and mentality going into the weekends,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel there was still a good amount of room for improvement in some of my decision-making throughout last season. If I focus on this aspect, I believe the results I\u2019m after will come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learnt a lot in my first season of 86 racing in the TR86. It gave me a lot of confidence coming into last season, but obviously the TR and GR cars are quite different in terms of the way they handle and feel, and I struggled last season with car setup and my overall speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far from how testing has gone with Syndicate, coming into this season, I feel like we will be able to have plenty of speed and be consistent with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The GR86 Championship begins its season with back-to-back rounds at Hampton Downs, the second as part of the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy.<\/p>\n

\"Cormac<\/p>\n

Cormac Murphy in the #81 at Highlands during the 2024\/2025 GR86 Championship. Image: Bruce Jenkins<\/p>\n

The one-make series will also race at Taupo, Teretonga, Highlands, and Manfeild.<\/p>\n

Murphy is optimistic he can be a contender in his second season .<\/p>\n

\u201cThe competitiveness and how hard it is to be competitive in this series, is what makes me keep wanting to come back,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe margins are so unbelievably tight, and with this series being considered the premier tin-top class in New Zealand, the talent of all the other drivers is also some of the best NZ has to offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my experience to be competitive in this series, you have to drive to your and the car\u2019s absolute limit every single lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, with everything being so close, even being the fastest driver might not be enough so also having the right setup in the car for each track, is going to be crucial.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m usually quite reserved about prospects for the season as it puts unnecessary stress on everyone but I\u2019m feeling better than ever and I feel my team and I have ticked all the boxes for what\u2019s needed to challenge for the title.\u201d<\/p>\n

2025\/2026 Repco NextGen NZ Championship Calendar<\/p>\n

Round 1 \u2013 Hampton Downs Motorsport Park \u2013 October 31-November 2
Round 2 \u2013 Hampton Downs Motorsport Park \u2013 January 9-11
Round 3 \u2013 Taupo International Motorsport Park \u2013 January 16-18
Round 4 \u2013 Teretonga Park \u2013 January 23-25
Round 5 \u2013 Highlands Motorsport Park \u2013 January 30-February 1
Round 6 \u2013 Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon \u2013 February 27-March 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greg Murphy’s son Cormac Murphy. Image: Bruce Jenkins Murphy has switched teams this season from Race Lab Academy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[13400,111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-104878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-greg-murphy","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}