Murphy’s office is really not much more a desk with a laptop in an upstairs corner of Greg Murphy Racing, with a couple of bookcases full of model cars and a smattering of trophies to give it some colour. It’s dwarfed by his father Kevin’s office, which takes up half the room.

But this is where Greg makes many of the big decisions in his life, including the one to leave Kmart Racing after a largely successful four years and join up with Paul and Kees Weel’s expanding empire, now in Melbourne.

That decision process began in August last year, at a time when Murphy was, in his words, "disillusioned’ with the way his career was going. He was, as always, competitive and pushing hard, and started the season with poles at the Australian Grand Prix and Clipsal 500, and had a podium in New Zealand (after dominating the NZ event for three years) but, in reality, he and the team were struggling.

His car was hard on its tyres, and despite the best efforts of a very dedicated and capable crew, development was slipping behind, and there wasn’t the budget – high-profile sponsor notwithstanding – to apply the technical muscle needed to keep pace with teams like Stone Brothers Racing.

So Murphy began to brood and worry about his future, which looked somewhat uncertain. While many drivers had jumped teams in the last two years, grabbing big dollars and better deals, he had deflected offers and stayed true to Kmart Racing. Now he started to feel that this could hurt his chances of ever winning the title, his main goal.

"I had no idea what I was going to do," says Murphy. "There were no options out there and I was very cemented at Holden after the end of 2003."

But Murphy claims his motivation never wavered during the ‘04 season and winning Bathurst for the second consecutive time (his fourth) boosted morale, albeit briefly.

"Sandown was a bit of shock, we just didn’t have the speed there," he shrugs. "Then we got to Bathurst and I don’t need any motivation up there.

"I was pretty happy at the Gold Coast but, like the whole team, I was frustrated that we weren’t able to do exactly what we wanted; there were faster cars out there and nothing we could do about it."

Indeed, at the last race of the year at Eastern Creek, a despondent Murphy looked like a man who had already handed in his resignation – which he had.

"I wasn’t confident going to Eastern Creek," says Murphy. "I was hopeful because the guys had changed so many things and we arrived there with new ideas, but we were still off the pace. That was really upsetting for everyone. I hadn’t lost interest; I was just very disappointed. I wanted to finish my four years with Kmart on a high. We’d been second in the championship prior to Eastern Creek, and it would’ve been nice to finish there.

"No-one was to blame, it was the Holden Motorsport situation, the cars we had, and there just wasn’t the money do a Stone Brothers. When you are competing against teams that have a couple of million dollars more, it’s pretty hard."

Murphy may have been dejected as he boarded a plane back to Melbourne after Eastern Creek, but he could now focus on 2005 and the deal he had been working on since August, when he received a call from former SBR wheeler and dealer Mark Roworth, now racing director at Paul Weel Racing.

 

"Mark rang to say that it wasn’t going to work out with Jason Bright and what was I up to," says Murphy.

"Then I had another good Holden option to look at and that’s when I started to put things in place."

Joining PWR seems an inspired move for Murphy, who agrees that he’s not renowned for his timing, and he says he had no idea about Kmart’s shock decision to end its sponsorship of the John Kelly-owned team.

"Now I’ve left, the Kmart team is going through a whole new restructure, so it’ll probably go gangbusters next year, which will piss me off no end!" he laughs. "If the team is going to happen, why couldn’t it have happened two years ago? But, saying that, I think I’ve made a good move and I’m very happy with where I am. Going by PWR’s performance last year – and it was probably on a very similar resources level to what Kmart was – and now with its expansion and new premises I’d say, absolutely, it’s a good move."

But is it the best career move Murphy has made so far?

"It’s hard to say," he says thoughtfully. "The move to TWR and Kmart at the end of 2001 was a career saver and such a massive advancement from where I’d been. If I’d continued with the (Garry) Dumbrell and (Fred) Gibson thing, we wouldn’t have been going any better. The proof was in the pudding when Lowndesy went there, and they had millions! I just wish Craig had rung and said, ‘This is what I’m thinking of doing’, because I would have told him not to."

THE USUAL SUSPECTS Murphy considers Ambrose his most likely nemesis in his quest for the 2005 title. Who does Greg Murphy rate as the toughest opposition in 2005? Don’t expect any surprises. "It’ll be the usual suspects," says Murphy. "Marcos will have so much confidence that, as he said, the only thing SBR really has to worry about is beating themselves. Richo, Skaifey, Rick and Garth will be strong. Marcos is the number one, but there are so many drivers after him that will be a danger. Brighty? If he continues to focus as heavily as he does on money and teams and deals, he’s going to be in deep trouble and that was the downfall of his championship over the last four or five rounds last year. He says he’s going to be heavily involved in Britek. He’s going to need to work out whether he wants to be a driver or a team owner."

But PWR hasn’t exactly had a smooth transition to its new ex-Gibson Motorsport premises (ironically, where Murphy used to race from), having lost a few crew members, including top engineer Phil Keed, who followed Jason Bright to Ford Performance Racing.

"The team was very much under the belief that Phil was staying and that was a big shock and not a very good one," Murphy says, annoyed.

"I was totally under the impression that he would be my engineer, and there was no reason to believe anything else. Some of the antics that went on probably weren’t very professional and a few people are not very happy about that. But you’ve got to move on and we’ve replaced him with another fantastic engineer, Steve Henderson, a guy I know really well. I’m very confident."

The way PWR handled Keed’s departure impressed Murphy.

"Kees just got on with it and, man, was he onto stuff very fast!" says Murphy. "We replaced Phil and all the other people who left or weren’t required any longer within 10 days, and that speaks volumes for the team getting on with the job."

Murphy has a great relationship with Paul Weel, now in his seventh year of V8 Supercar, and is destined to become his racing mentor in the same way he did with Rick Kelly. And he respects Kees’ no-nonsense approach to the business.

"Paul and I get on really well. He’s a great guy and I’ve got respect for him for what he’s done. He’s still got a way to go, and he knows that, but he’s shown some really good performances; some of his driving last year was fantastic.

"We’ve just got to make him more consistent and qualify a little further up so he doesn’t have to keep fighting his way through the field and, hopefully, I can help him do that. He’s very focused on that and I’m looking forward to working with him.

"Kees is very switched on, very focused and a real operator. He talks and then gets things done, he doesn’t hold back, and I like that. He’s very open and always communicating and you always know where you are.

"If there’s something you need to know, he’ll tell you and that’s good. He’s the kind of person that, if we do have a disagreement, it will be about an issue and we’ll agree to disagree and move on."

There’s no doubt Murphy has mellowed since marrying and having children, but he can still be the same moody, unpredictable firebrand (ask Marcos Ambrose) on and off the track, and reckons "a sports psychologist would have his work cut out trying to sort me out". But that’s what makes him such an exciting driver and, no doubt, keeps his team members guessing. Don’t expect any personality changes this year.

"I don’t think I change too much," says Murphy. "I can’t change very easily, I’ll just continue to do what I do and hope I will be consistently more fulfilled than I have been. That’s the only reason I do this, to win races and the championship, so if it works out the way I want to then I’ll be very happy.

"But it’s not going to be that easy. I think 2005 will be harder. Last year was a step above the year before and 2005 will be another step up. There were some impressive performance gains by quite a few teams last year and I see that happening again this year."

Murphy believes he won’t need any ‘new team’ adjustment period and will hit the ground running hard from lap one, and he’s confident of maintaining his top-five status at the very least.

"I’m pretty confident about the car and I’m fairly comfortable with most places except Eastern Creek," he says. "I really enjoy Adelaide, but I haven’t had a good run there for a while. We could be racing at Pukekohe for the last time and Jason’s car was a jet there last year, so I’m really keen to have a good result.

"But you’ve got to be near the front to win, and I’ve got be more consistent than I’ve had the opportunity to be before, to stay at the front."

The pile of letters on Murphy’s desk beckons and we wind up the interview.

"When February rolls around I’ll start looking forward to the grand prix. When you first drive the cars you get this sensation of a new year and that the roller-coaster ride is starting all over again. And being in a new team is really interesting; it’s always exciting. There is a lot of pressure to prove you’ve made the best move."

MORE TESTING, LESS COST CUTTING Always outspoken, Murphy has plenty to say on the lack of testing days and new cost-cutting measures planned for V8 Supercar. "There should be more testing: 10 days is a good number," he says. "Or maybe we have set days where all teams go, or public test days, or maybe you get six hours of testing on the Friday before an event. That will benefit everybody, because you’re testing on the track you’re going to race on and there won’t be such a desire to look elsewhere to try and find an advantage, like Dynamic at Woomera. "I don’t think you should be allowed to fly a car out of the country for testing on rigs; you shouldn’t be allowed to have chassis rigs and be sending information overseas, but all that stuff’s very hard to police. "There are always going to be teams with more money and they’re going to want to spend it. You can’t stop that, and I think there are some new regulations being thrown around that are just ridiculous. I’ve heard rumours about not having warm-ups on race day and before races! I don’t know if that’s going to happen, but why do things like that? It doesn’t make sense? "There’s also a likelihood of only two rattleguns per car in pitstops... I just don’t understand this. They say they’re trying to cut costs but it doesn’t. Get onto the bigger things. Racing costs a lot of money. Accept it the way it is and if you can’t keep up, you can’t stay in the game. "No-one said it was going to be easy. Don’t touch what isn’t broken."