Kiwi drivers Greg Murphy and Jason Richards struggled through a variety of dramas and complications in Sunday’s final two races.
Murphy’s Holden Commodore was spun in the final, and Richards retired with a broken throttle.
“We struggled (at Phillips Island) and it was extremely annoying to get punted off in the last race of the year,” Murphy said. Richards said the throttle pedal linkage broke.
“That brought us to a stop, and that’s a disappointing way to end the year.”
But 2007 saw the Tasman outfit in better shape than in 2006.
It improved from 11th in the 2006 Teams’ Championship to seventh this year.
Murphy finished the season 13th in driver points, with Richards one place behind and just 15 points in arrears after 14 rounds.
Murphy and Richards teamed up to finish fourth at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, the first Holden team home, and Richards claimed Tasman’s first ever sprint round podium with third at Indy on the Gold Coast. Murphy’s sixth placing at that meeting made it the best sprint round result ever for the team.
Both drivers are upbeat about 2008.
“This Rockstar Tasman Motorsport team is moving forward,” says Murphy.
“We’ve had some frustrating struggles throughout the year, but we’ve also made some strong progress and got a lot of things happening for 2008 and beyond, and that’s exciting.”
Richards says 2007 saw “a huge effort from everyone within the team, and with all the developments going on behind the scenes with new car builds, new dynos…we’re all excited about next year.”
