Greg Murphy Won Bathurst Four Times, Brodie Kostecki Took the 2023 Title

The fastest lap ever recorded at Mount Panorama stood for seven years. Greg Murphy set it in a 2003 qualifying shootout, and Bathurst folklore gave it a name: the Lap of the Gods. Murphy is one of four people here whose names are bound up with Australian touring-car racing. A fifth, in effect, runs through every one of their stories, Bathurst itself.

Brodie Kostecki: the 2023 Supercars champion

Brodie Paul Kostecki, born on 1 November 1997, is an Australian driver who won the 2023 Supercars Championship. He has been racing the number 17 Ford Mustang GT for Dick Johnson Racing in the Repco Supercars Championship, and earlier spent time in the NASCAR Cup Series and in what is now the ARCA Menards Series East. He is of Ukrainian descent, and his surname uses the Polish-language spelling.

The nickname Bush has an origin story. Kostecki and his cousin Kurt were in a VT Commodore at Norwell Motorplex, with Kurt driving, when the brakes failed. Brodie opened the passenger door at about 110kph and jumped, sliding across grass and up an embankment into a bush. He was not injured.

How Brodie Kostecki climbed to the title

Kostecki made his Supercars debut at the 2019 Bathurst 1000 alongside his cousin Jake Kostecki. They crashed out on lap 111. Two more rounds followed that year, at the Gold Coast and Sandown, where eighth was their best result.

In 2020 Eggleston Motorsport, run by Rachael and Ben Eggleston, gave him a seat in the Dunlop Series. In a season cut short by COVID he took two poles, two wins and three fastest laps. Erebus then signed him for the 2020 Bathurst 1000 alongside Anton De Pasquale, and the pair finished ninth.

For 2021 he joined Will Brown at Erebus after David Reynolds and De Pasquale left. He stood on the podium at Sandown, Eastern Creek and Bathurst, and finished ninth overall with 1788 points. In 2022 he moved up to seventh in the standings despite one podium fewer than the year before, with his top-three finishes coming at Eastern Creek and The Bend.

He therefore arrived at 2023 without a win from the previous season and with five podiums from 71 starts. By the end of that year he and Erebus Motorsport had taken both the drivers and teams titles.

The 2024 split and the NASCAR detours

The next chapter turned messy quickly. In early February 2024, weeks before the opening round, it was reported that Kostecki had parted ways with Erebus after rumours swirled about how he was being treated inside the team. Naming-rights sponsor Coca-Cola, along with Shaw and Partners and SCTR, withdrew financial support. Todd Hazelwood took his seat at the opener and at the Melbourne round. A week into April the news came that he would be back at Erebus for the Taupo round.

His NASCAR story ran in parallel. In 2023 he made his Cup Series debut on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in an additional number 33 Chevrolet fielded by Richard Childress Racing, qualifying eleventh and finishing 22nd. On 2 October 2023 it was announced that he would run part-time in the Cup Series in 2024 for Erebus, which would enter NASCAR in partnership with Richard Childress Racing. The announcement carried a picture of a car numbered 99, his Supercars number, but Trackhouse Racing already used 99 in the Cup Series and Hendrick Motorsports had 9, so Erebus would have had to pick another. Richard Childress said the plan covered up to five races in 2024, including an oval. On 1 May 2024, long-time mentor Paul Morris confirmed that those races had been axed.

The fastest lap ever recorded at Mount Panorama stood for seven years.

Greg Murphy: four Bathurst 1000 wins and the Lap of the Gods

Gregory David Murphy, born on 23 August 1972, is a New Zealander best known as a four-time winner of the Bathurst 1000. He was involved in motorsport by the age of eight, moving from karts to saloon cars and single-seaters before relocating to Australia. He first raced at Bathurst in 1994, the same year he won the New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild in a Reynard 90D. In 1996 he finished second in the GT2 class at Le Mans.

That same year he won the Bathurst 1000 and the Sandown 500 with Craig Lowndes in the Holden Racing Team. He drove full-time for the team in the 1997 Australian Touring Car Championship and placed fourth, but Lowndes' return from overseas limited him to the endurance races in 1998.

Moving to Gibson Motorsport, Murphy finished sixth in points in 1999 and 2000 and paired with Steven Richards to win the 1999 Bathurst 1000. He was third at the mountain in 2000. In 2001 he helped create Kmart Racing after Gibson turned to Ford and Lowndes, and he finished third at Bathurst with Todd Kelly. At Kmart Racing he was championship runner-up in 2002 and 2003, and finished fourth in the standings in 2001 and 2004.

Murphy has run car number 51 since 2001 and won four rounds at his home circuit of Pukekohe near Auckland, in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2005. At Bathurst only Jim Richards, with seven wins, and Steven Richards, with five, have more victories among Kiwi drivers; Murphy's four give him the third best record.

The Lap of the Gods and the 2003 and 2004 wins

In the 2003 Top 10 Shootout Murphy lapped the 6.213 km Mount Panorama circuit in 2:06.8594. That time was the fastest ever recorded there until Craig Lowndes beat it in 2010, and Scott McLaughlin later went faster again in 2017. It is regarded as one of the finest moments in Bathurst folklore.

He won the Bathurst 1000 with Rick Kelly in 2003 and again in 2004. In November 2003 he also won the Bathurst 24 Hour, in a Garry Rogers Motorsport 7.0 litre V8 Holden Monaro 427C shared with Peter Brock, Jason Bright and Todd Kelly. Murphy qualified the number 05 Monaro second behind the 2002-winning Monaro of teammate Garth Tander, and the two cars led throughout. After 527 laps Murphy's car won, finishing 0.3505 ahead of Tander.

His luck was not always so good. In 2002 his team was handed the biggest penalty in V8 racing history, five minutes, after his car was released early from the pit box, rupturing a refuelling hose and spilling fuel.

Murphy after Kmart

The years after Kmart were patchier. Murphy raced for Paul Weel Racing in 2005 and 2006, starting well until a change to Perkins engines, then for Tasman Motorsport in 2007. A 2010 move to Paul Morris Motorsport ended in a split announced that November. In 2011 he joined Kelly Racing in a late deal with sponsor Pepsi Max, whose car went through four graffiti-themed paint schemes in a year. He took pole position at the Bathurst 1000 and finished third. He had already been second there in 2008.

In 2013 he returned to the Holden Racing Team part-time, sharing car 22 with James Courtney in the endurance races. At Bathurst he crashed heavily at Reid Park, and then at the Gold Coast another serious incident, this time involving Paul Dumbrell, ended the car's race.

New Zealand's V8SuperTourer series gave him a second wind. He took part in 2012 with M3 Racing, alongside Richard Moore and Paul Manuell, with businessman Mike Pero as major sponsor. He won the first V8SuperTourer race at Hampton Downs, and over the season claimed a pole, five race wins, two round wins and the Endurance Championship, but back problems cost him two rounds and he finished second overall. In 2013 he won six races and stood on the podium 14 times in 21 races, taking the title after a final-race battle with Ant Pedersen. It was his first championship win in 17 years. He repeated it in 2014, and finished second at the Sandown 500 with Courtney that year.

In 2016 he returned to circuit racing in an Aston Martin alongside Tony Quinn at the Highlands 101 and finished second. A wildcard Bathurst 1000 entry with Richie Stanaway, floated in 2021 by Peter Adderton of Boost Mobile, was confirmed on 8 June 2021 with Erebus Motorsport, postponed on 12 November 2021 because of travel restrictions between Australia and New Zealand, and revived in late April 2022, with three test days planned before the race, the first at Winton on 7 June.

Away from the circuit, Murphy joined Jeremy Clarkson and James May on Top Gear Live when its first international show ran at the ASB Showgrounds in Auckland from 12 to 15 February 2009, and again when it returned in 2010.

Cameron McConville: from Formula Ford to endurance specialist

Cameron Eric McConville, born on 22 January 1974, is an Australian driver known as Conkers. He spent 14 years as a professional, ten of them in the Supercars Championship, and while retired from full-time competition he still races occasionally and is an in-demand endurance co-driver. He is rumoured to be The Stig in Top Gear Australia. He also wrote for magazines, presented television programmes and, up to the close of 2009, provided the colour commentary on Network Ten's Formula One broadcasts in Australia. He now works as Motorsport Commercial Manager at Porsche Centre Melbourne.

He started in go-karts at eight and collected several Victorian titles. By fifteen he held a CAMS racing licence, the youngest anyone had. Formula Ford came in 1991, and in 1992, as the works Van Diemen driver, he took the Motorcraft Driver to Europe title as its youngest ever winner, ahead of future champions Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards.

The Bathurst mistake and the long road back

That win earned a testing role with Dick Johnson's team and a place in the line-up for the 1992 Tooheys 1000, in the second Ford Sierra RS500. He qualified it with ease, but the race was wet, and the team gave the powerful turbocharged car to the more experienced pair of Terry Shiel and Greg Crick.

A year later he returned to share a Ford EB Falcon V8 with Paul Radisich. Running third under pressure from Tomas Mezera in the Holden Racing Team Commodore, McConville got the car sideways over Skyline and clouted the wall. The damage looked mostly cosmetic, but the pair slipped to eighth, ten laps behind winners Larry Perkins and Gregg Hansford. The mistake cost him dearly.

Persistence paid off in 1996, when he teamed with Melbourne businessman Tom Warwick in a Porsche 993 RSCS and won the Australian GTP series in the last race, beating favourite Jim Richards. In 1997 he replaced Greg Murphy as the Audi Australia works driver and finished third in the Australian Super Touring Championship. In 1998 team owner Brad Jones narrowly beat him to the title in somewhat controversial circumstances.

Cameron McConville in Supercars

A strong part-time drive in 1999 earned an endurance co-drive in the Holden Racing Team beside championship leader Craig Lowndes, and the pair finished second at the Bathurst 1000. Rod Nash Racing gave him a full-time seat in 2000, and in 2001 he moved to Lansvale Racing in Sydney. In 2002 he was outright winner of the Bathurst 24 Hour in a Holden Monaro for Garry Rogers Motorsport, which led to a contract there from 2004. He took his first championship race win at Winton that year, and in 2005 became team leader when Garth Tander left for the HSV dealer team. For 2006 he moved to Supercheap Auto Racing, run by Kees and Paul Weel, to pair with Greg Murphy.

In 2007 he began his Channel Ten reporting role, including co-hosting Formula One. In 2008 he reunited with former boss Brad Jones in the number 14 Commodore, with WOW Sight and Sound as major sponsor, and took a strong third at the Adelaide 500. After two mixed seasons, and soon after a nasty crash at the Phillip Island 500K, he announced he would step down from full-time racing at the end of 2009. He did not return to his on-screen role, and set up a tyre retailing franchise.

Changes to endurance-race regulations then made him a sought-after co-driver. In 2010 he co-drove a HSV R8 Tourer to third in the Bathurst 12 Hour, drove the Eggleston Motorsport Commodore in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series and was named to replace Daniel Gaunt at Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport at Townsville. In 2011 he stepped in at the last minute for Team BOC in Tasmania, replacing the injured Jason Bright in race 24. He started from the back and finished 19th.

Mark Larkham: open-wheel winner, team owner and broadcaster

Mark Andrew Larkham, known as Larko, was born in Griffith on 29 December 1963. He is a retired Australian driver, a former team owner and a television commentator. He finished fifth in the 1988 Motorcraft Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series, then won the 1989 edition with the support of the Coffey Ford team. That began a rivalry with Russell Ingall, who collided with him at the first corner at Mallala.

Larkham formed his own team, Larkham Motor Sport, and in 1991 made a brief attempt at the Australian Production Car Championship with a Ford EA Falcon before returning to open wheels in a Ralt RT20 in Formula Brabham. He took third in the 1991 Australian Drivers' Championship, and he was the one man who managed to beat Mark Skaife in a race that season. In 1992 he imported a Reynard 90D, becoming the first to take advantage of relaxed rules that had barred carbon-fibre cars, but Skaife still beat him and he was runner-up. In 1993 the pair fought again, with Skaife now in a carbon-fibre car as well, and again Larkham lost the title. He did win the first international Formula Brabham event, the 1993 Indonesian Grand Prix.

Touring cars: near-misses and a Bathurst pole

His touring-car debut came at the 1989 Pepsi 300 at Oran Park, where he was due to share Peter Brock's 560 hp (418 kW; 568 PS) Ford Sierra RS500. Brock, a nine-time Bathurst winner, put it on pole, but the car retired after 13 of 100 laps with a suspected blown head gasket and Larkham never drove. At Sandown he shared the number 105 Sierra with Brad Jones and, after Brock's own car failed, Brock joined them. The trio finished seventh outright. Larkham missed out on that year's Bathurst when the team signed the British Sierra specialist Andy Rouse, and he did not make his Bathurst debut for another six years.

After four years in Formula Holden and Brabham and a 1994 away from the sport, his team entered 5.0L touring cars in 1995 with a Ford EF Falcon of innovative design, applying open-wheel thinking. The first season failed to score a single point, though some of its ideas spread across the sport. A third place at the 1997 Primus 1000 Classic at Bathurst marked improvement. By 1998 Stone Brothers Racing was handling much of the car's preparation and the first win followed that year at the Surfers Paradise Indycar event. In 1999 Larkham took pole position for the Bathurst 1000 and first served on the board of TEGA.

In 2003 the team added a second car with 2000 Bathurst 1000 winner Jason Bargwanna as lead driver. Larkham scaled back his own driving, with 2003 V8 Development Series winner Mark Winterbottom taking over as full-time driver. His last race was the 2004 Bathurst 1000. After the 2005 season the team was sold to WPS Racing, and Larkham, who took over as team manager, retired before the season was out.

Mark Larkham on television

He came back to the sport through Channel 7's V8 Supercar coverage as the on-air technical guru, explaining the series to a wider audience, and as a pit reporter. He also appeared often on V8 Xtra with Neil Crompton and Mark Skaife. In 2015 the broadcast rights left Channel 7 and were divided between Network Ten and Foxtel, and Larkham moved to Network Ten, working with Matt White and as a specialist on the panel show RPM. He also holds a seat on the board of the Australian Institute for Motor Sport Safety.

Four drivers, four sets of results