Asian Motor Sports

Mark Skaife ran away with the opening race of the Placemakers V8 Supercar International at Pukekohe Park Raceway on Saturday.

While Skaife put together an impressive start to finish performance Kiwi Greg Murphy’s race was over before the first corner.

The four time winner of the Pukekohe series was involved in a major crash just after the start that left the front of his Holden Commodore all but destroyed.

Murphy walked away from the incident but his Supercheap Auto Racing team will have plenty of work to do if they are going to have the car ready to line up in the second race on Sunday which is due to start at 12.05pm local time.

And Murphy admitted it would take a super-human effort to get the car repaired.

“I don’t know what happened but we intend on finding out,” he said. “It just felt like I was hit. The car just turned hard right into the wall.

“It’s destroyed and we won’t be here tomorrow - we don’t think. “We fully intend on finding out who caused it. “This is extremely disappointing for the team and I feel very bad for them after what happened in Adelaide.”

Skaife started the round with no points after a shocking beginning to the season at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide.

But he left his opposition under no illusions after race one. The Holden Racing Team driver took control of the race early on and never looked back. His pit-stop was slick and his driving was almost perfect.

And he heaped plenty of praise on his team for putting his car back together after the Adelaide round.

“After getting the spare car ready for the Melbourne Grand Prix and then getting the other one back from being repaired and then putting it on a plane to get it here and it being as good as it is - they’ve done a great job,” he said.

“It’s been a pretty hectic start to the year. “We certainly didn’t expect to have this much drama with a brand new car.”

Sunday’s second race will see the debut of the controversial reverse grid concept.

Veteran driver Russell Ingall - who finished second in the opening race and will start at the back of the grid with Skaife - said he was expecting plenty of action.

“I don’t know how we’re going to play it to be honest,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a survival race. “I think it’s going to be mayhem.

“It’s going to be a matter of not getting mixed up in somebody elses accident that’ll be the trick rather than trying to get through.”

In the companion Porsche GT3 event the Porsche of Dean Fulford crashed in spectacular fashion by vaulting a 3 meter high catch fence and landing the the grandstands. Fulford climbed for the car apparently uninjured and there were no reported injuries to the spectators.

Cross Posted @ Full Throttle