MURRAY GAINS ON SUNDAY AFTER SATURDAY HEARTBREAK
Cooper Murray ended Sunday’s race on the Gold Coast eight places up on his starting position in a strong conclusion to a weekend that started with difficulty and a DNF
The round began with promise, with a top-eight finish in the opening practice session for the rookie, but the car was less competitive in qualifying trim. Cooper was nonetheless in shootout contention until the final seconds of Q2, when a red flag left him unable to complete his final flying lap that already featured personal-best times in the first two sectors.
He lined up 15th on the grid and gained four places by staying out during an early safety car, but what was shaping up to be an interesting race strategically ended in disappointment on lap 17 when his right-rear tyre popped off its rim as his Camaro vaulted through the Beach chicane.
He retired on the spot, leaving him scoreless for only the third race this year.
The team’s qualifying difficulties continued on Sunday, with Coop lining up 21st on the grid, but his race pace was impressive from the lower reaches of the grid.
The 99 Camaro made steady progress up the order almost immediately, rising to fourth before his first stop on lap 30. The service sent him back down to 21st, but another incisive but short stint had him back up to 10th before making his final appearance in the lane.
This time the stop was less costly. He rejoined 19th and deftly fought his way forward to 13th in the classification, eight places up on his starting position, leaving it open to debate what could have been possible with a smoother series of qualifying sessions.
“Not the weekend we were ideally hoping for on the streets of the Gold Coast. The weekend started okay in practice — we finished between eighth and 10th. The car was feeling nice and good heading into qualifying, but unfortunately we just missed the window a little bit, and then we got caught out with the red flag when we were in for a time to get to the top-10 shootout, so we started the race down in 15th.
“I made up a few spots, I was cruising along, and then I unfortunately had a puncture on the right-rear tyre while going through the Beach chicane, and that caused a big crash. That wasn’t ideal.
“The boys and girls at Erebus did an amazing job to fix the car and get it back out for qualifying on Sunday morning, where once again the car just wasn’t in the best set-up window for a single lap. It made our race difficult starting from 21st, but the car was an absolute jet in the race. We were easily top five on race pace for the last 50 or 60 laps.
“It was pretty cool doing quali lap after quali lap, making up some spots. I moved up eight spots in the race and came home P13, which is a decent way to finish the weekend.
“I’m looking forward to Sandown, one of my favourite tracks.”