Murphy ‘pleasantly surprised’ by Erebus surge
EREBUS Motorsport’s sustained Gen3 form came as a pleasant surprise even to Greg Murphy, who finished his decorated Supercars career at the Dandenong South squad.
Murphy shared an Erebus wildcard with Richie Stanaway at the 2022 Repco Bathurst 1000, netting a fine 11th place finish in that one-off comeback.
The four-time Great Race winner returned to the sidelines this year but keenly observed the performance of Betty Klimenko and Barry Ryan’s team, which capitalised on a seismic shift in the category’s technical regulations.
Armed with a pair of consistently fast Coca-Cola Camaros, Erebus beat Triple Eight to both the drivers’ and teams’ championships, with Brodie Kostecki crowned champion.
“(Gen3) suited them absolutely brilliantly and they stepped up to the mark and ran two cars pretty consistently at the front and put themselves in that position to win the championship,” Murphy said in a bonus episode of the Castrol Motorsport News Podcast.
“Brodie is brilliant, he really is. He is just a genuine superstar talent and he dealt with those pressures at the end really, really well to get the job done and set himself up for it and they very much deserve it.
“So massive congrats to Barry, Betty and the Erebus team.
“I was lucky enough to spend a little bit of time up close and personal there in ’22 with the wildcard.
“They do things a little bit differently than say Triple Eight do and the way they operate, but they get it done.
“Now they have got to back it up in 2024, which I’m sure they will be very prepared for.”
Murphy believes Kostecki will be up for the challenge that comes with having a target on his back.
“I think he’s just going to grow from that (title),” said the Kiwi legend.
“I would assume, I would feel that getting that one off your back, it really does prepare you so well to be able to climb into more championships and more race wins, that confidence.
“Just getting it out of the way, number one, ‘I’ve won a championship, it’s out of the way’; you then are released a little bit, that pressure, and I think it’s subliminal. I don’t think it’s something that you really necessarily feel but I think he will be really strong next year.
“The competition, if Supercars do the job that’s necessary in making sure that there is no issues or performance differences that are significant between the Camaro and the Mustang next year, he’s going to be under huge pressure from lots of other drivers.
“But that’s what he wants. That’s what drivers want.”
With Will Brown heading to Triple Eight, Kostecki will have a new-for-2024 teammate in the form of Jack Le Brocq.
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