New Zealand star and dual Bathurst 1000 winner Greg Murphy will make his maiden trek to the Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival.
Murphy flew the flag for New Zealand when Supercars was building in the late-1990s into the 2000s as displayed by the major support of retailer Kmart backing Gibson Motorsport, then a satellite Tom Walkinshaw Racing squad from 2001 until 2004.
Kmart and Murphy are synonymous having been together when the ‘Lap of the Gods’ occurred in 2003 in addition to the year’s Bathurst title alongside Rick Kelly, before going back-to-back in 2004.
Although the VY Commodore Murphy enjoyed great success in won’t be the one he gets behind the wheel of, instead he will be reunited with a Gibson Motorsport VT.
Constructed in 2000, the Kmart VT was raced by Murphy and Steve Richards in the year’s endurance races where the duo placed third in the Queensland 500 and repeated the feat in the Bathurst 1000.
Owned by Ben Stack, it has been meticulously restored back to its original form as it appeared in 2000.
Of significance, this example is the last Commodore constructed by Gibson Motorsport before it moved across to Ford for the 2001 season fielding an AU Falcon for Craig Lowndes.
Of course, Gibson Motorsport won the 1994 Australian Touring Car Championship with Mark Skaife in the first title victory for Holden since Peter Brock’s in 1980.
Prior to this, Gibson Motorsport raced the famed ‘Godzilla’ Nissan R32 Skyline GT-Rs to dominate the touring car scene.
Murphy will in fact not just drive the Kmart VT Commodore, but will appear on stage in the Adelaide Marriott Grand Marquee at various times during the event.
The Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival will occur on March 8-9.