CAR TROUBLES CRUEL COOPER’S PERTH WEEKEND

Coopery Murray lost a possible top-10 finish to engine failure on Sunday in a painful conclusion to a weekend of technical woe.

Saturday was tough for Murray, with dual qualifying sessions seeing him knocked out 23rd twice in a row.

His start to the weekend’s first race was strong, gaining three places in the first 12 laps, but from there a relatively early stop, him being one of the first to pit for fresh tyres, delivered him no gain. It had him rejoin in net 20th place, from where he saw the chequered flag.

He made similarly strong progress early in the day’s second race, picking up two places in the opening five laps, and he was moving forward late in the race when he suffered a rear-left suspension failure on lap 40 of 50.

Post-race analysis revealed his left-rear rod-end on the lower control arm had given up in turn 6. He was able to crawl back to pit lane for hasty repairs that allowed him to rejoin the race and score 13 points in 23rd place.

Sunday started with significantly more positivity, with Murray qualifying 12th and only 0.052 seconds shy of a top-10 shootout berth.

Despite losing a place off the line, he moved forward in the first stint and rose to as high as sixth before making his first pit stop on lap 30.

Showing good pace after rejoining in 16th, he again ran long in his second stint and was up to ninth when he made his final tyre change, but his race ended early when his engine catastrophically failed, with Murray reporting it had suddenly seized.

It left his Camaro stranded awkwardly in the braking zone for turn 6 just 21 laps from home in the 83-lap race, resulting in a failure to finish and a non-score for the day.

Round 6 of the Supercars Championship takes place on 20–22 June with the Darwin Triple Crown at Hidden Valley Raceway.