On the 10th anniversary of his famous Lap of the Gods at Mt Panorama, Greg Murphy was feeling very mortal after crashing out in the Bathurst 1000.
The New Zealander was bitterly disappointed that Sunday's crash likely ended his Holden teammate James Courtney's slim V8 Supercars championship title hopes.
Murphy may be a four-time Bathurst champion but he could not wander far before the race without being reminded about "that" lap.
His 2003 pole-winning time of two minutes 06.85 seconds in a Commodore is still the fastest qualifying lap ever at the demanding track in the Bathurst race's 51-year history.
Cruising along in the top five in Sunday's race, Murphy spectacularly crashed sideways into a high speed corner near Reid Park on lap 86, slamming the wall at 135kph.
He was later cleared of injury, saying his only complaint was a "bruised ego".
The 41-year-old rated the incident one of his worst on the mountain.
"It was weird, I had had moments around the track before but not there, it completely caught me by surprise," said Murphy, who is without a fulltime drive this year for the first time since 1998.
Coincidentally it was the same place Ford young gun Chaz Mostert suffered a horror crash at Friday's practice.
Murphy's accident prompted the 161-lap race's second yellow flag - but Murphy's teammate Courtney would have been forgiven for seeing red.
Courtney arrived at Bathurst fifth in the drivers' championship, 238 points behind series leader Jamie Whincup.
Instead of whittling away at Whincup's lead, Courtney's dreaded DNF all but sounds a death knell to hopes of adding to his 2010 V8 series win.
Not that Murphy had to be reminded.
"It's his championship (that it affects)," said Murphy.
"This sort of thing happens every year. But this time around we are the ones feeling bad. I am gutted for James. He has lost a lot of points.
"(But) that's Bathurst".
Share
