Murphy Prototypes at the Spa 6 Hours

Less than a couple of weeks before the teams started arriving at Spa to prepare for last weekend’s 6 Hours, Murphy Prototypes didn’t even have an entry. When Round 2 of the European Le Mans Series at Zolder was cancelled, a select few teams were invited to join the ranks at the WEC for the Spa race, but Murphy Prototypes wasn’t on the list. They’d asked to be, and initially the response from the ACO had been favourable, but then their application had been turned down.

When Dyson Racing announced the withdrawal of both their LMP1 Lola-Judds from the 24 Hours on April 16th, Murphy suddenly found themselves with an entry for Le Mans, and with that, the door to Spa opened up once again. The schedule was tight, but having missed out on half the race at Paul Ricard, the team wanted to get some more competitive track time under the car.

“We were absolutely delighted to get the invitation for the 24 Hours, of course – we’re over the moon,” said Greg Murphy, team principal. “We had the entry in for Le Mans right at the start of the process, and we had some idea that our chances of an invitation were getting better as one by one other teams dropped out, but it was still a very welcome surprise when the confirmation came through. That also allowed us to take up the opportunity to race here this weekend, and in all other respects the logistics have just come together perfectly. We actually believe we’re in a very strong position now, and it would be nice to think we might spring a few surprises.”

The only additional dilemma the team faced was finding a new third driver. Luca Moro was already committed to co-drive the WEC #32 Lola Lotus, so Greg Murphy needed a replacement. “I looked in the mirror and realised I wasn’t that man any more, but I remembered meeting Brendon Hartley at Paul Ricard for the pre-season test. He’d arrived there to test with Boutsen, and we’d got together for a chat. Some while later I’d been approached by someone else looking for a driver to do Porsche Supercup, and I recommended Brendon. That didn’t work out in the end, but when this opportunity came up and I needed someone of note to fill the seat, Brendon was my first choice.”

“He’s always been a quick driver, but he also has a terrific attitude; he’s friendly, professional, dedicated and very talented. He’s a ‘proper’ racing driver, and I’m just delighted to have him in the squad.”

“It’s also a signal from us that we’re serious about this weekend. We’re not here just to make up the numbers, and I actually believe we have a real chance of a podium. I think we’ve got one of the strongest line-ups in the class, not only on pace, but right across the board,” said Murphy.

“It was very much a last minute call,” admitted Brendon, “but I’m so pleased it came together. This is what I’ve wanted to do for ages. I knew I needed to check out other options, besides single seaters, but I hadn’t followed sportscars much until earlier this year, when I decided to take up an opportunity to attend the Paul Ricard test.” Brendon ran with Boutsen Ginion Racing, alongside Sebastien Buemi, but didn’t get to drive the Oreca until the fourth and final session, when he set quickest time for the squad. “I’d headed to Paul Ricard to make some approaches and prove I was serious, and that’s when I met this crazy Irish guy. I’m just so pleased that I did.”

Brendon hasn’t given up on his single-seater career, and with good reason. He has one of those impressive CV’s that includes entries like; ‘started racing karts aged 6’ and ‘drove his first F1 test aged 18’. He’s still only 22 and already has 5 years in the Red Bull development programme under his belt, and his F1 prospects remain strong. “I’m just trying to be realistic in this current climate, and I’m keen to broaden my experience. What has certainly impressed me is just how professional everything is in sportscar racing. To be honest I hadn’t expected that, but the level is so high. What I also hadn’t quite anticipated is the speed differential between the classes. I really like the cars, but getting to grips with the traffic is going to be more of a challenge. You have to be so clever about it, and there’s a lot to learn -  a lot to take in, but that will come with time, I hope. Nothing makes up for experience, but I’m a quick learner.”

My joining the line-up at Murphy, he had to fit in with a pairing that’s been racing together for years. Warren Hughes is one of the most experienced drivers currently in the sport, and is universally respected. Jody Firth may be the “gentleman” driver in the team, but as he proved at Imola last season, he’s no slowcoach. “I was concerned, coming into a team environment for the first time,” conceded Hartley, “but everyone’s been so welcoming. Warren and Jody have been very helpful and open, and it’s been a great experience working with them. I’ve been enormously impressed by them both.”

Practice & Qualifying

The Murphy weekend didn’t get off to the best of starts. Performance in the three sessions of practice didn’t live up to expectations, although Greg put much of that down the team’s decision to stick to the harder race compounds throughout. “We always work on establishing a set-up on the race tyres first,” he said. “I expect a lot of the other teams may have been going out on the softer rubber, but that has little relevance to the race, and we prefer to concentrate on ensuring that we’ve got a car that’s good in race configuration.”

The team did have a few issues with establishing a balance between ride height and handling, but by the end of the third session, the Murphy prototypes Oreca was consistently challenging for the top three in LM2. That session also revealed the potential in Brendon Hartley. “Brendon is an absolute star,” smiled a well-satisfied Greg Murphy. “He’s been very methodical in his approach to the weekend, and working his way in steadily. We couldn’t be happier with him and the way the decision has worked out.”

“All three are working really well together, and they’ve all done very similar times. I think we can be fairly confident that they’ll be setting a race pace around the 2:11 mark, and there aren’t many teams here that can claim that for their line-up.”

Much against form, the weather held through most of the practice sessions, but when the first smatterings of rain appeared, Murphy suddenly looked better placed than most. “We tried changing a few things after it start to rain. It was the first time we’d had a wet track since practice began, and with the forecast for the race being for rain, we grabbed the opportunity to try out a few adjustments. I think it’s fair to say that, with the track then drying again, some didn’t work, but it was a useful exercise, and we’re happy that we’re heading in the right direction.”

The car was placed in the dependably quick hands of Warren Hughes for qualifying, but 11th in class wasn’t where the #48 had expected to start. “He hit traffic and never got a clear lap,” said Murphy, who also admitted that the car had been running on the harder compound again. The team wasn’t unduly concerned, and for good reason. Next morning, Saturday, dawned wet and miserable. In the official warm-up Hughes emerged as not only fastest in LMP2, but quickest of all the petrol-powered cars as well, fifth behind the four Audi diesels. It was the best possible start to the day, and a real boost for the team. “The car is a legend in the wet,” grinned Greg Murphy, delighted with the session, and the prospects this offered for the race. “Hopping round the puddles at Snetterton last week evidently helped!”

Race

By the time the clock ticked round towards two-fifteen, the rain that had given Warren Hughes that tremendous pace in Warm-up had eased to a light drizzle, and as the cars moved off the grid to begin the parade lap, it had almost stopped. True, there were plenty of puddles, and the whole track glistened with surface moisture, but it wasn’t exactly 'sopping wet’.

Faithful to the team’s plan, and the assurances (in writing) from Race Control that swapping drivers between qualifying and the race was permitted, the #48 Murphy Prototype Oreca moved off the grid in the capable hands of Jody Firth. Eleventh in P2 wasn’t quite part of that original strategy, but with the performance so promising in the wet Jody was confident of gaining a few places during the opening stint.

In the end, the start didn’t quite fulfil expectations. “There was a heck of a lot of standing water and the tyres were cold,” said Jody after the race. “It took ages to get any heat into them, and while the grip was excellent once they’d warmed up a bit, it seemed to take an age. I just had to take it easy for the first few laps, and I lost several places. I dropped one right at the start, through La Source, and then another into Les Combes.

I was then into a better position to see where I was – the spray was quite bad at that stage – but as we came down towards Pouhon I caught a glimpse of some lights coming through on the inside. I couldn’t tell who it was, but I left a fairly generous car’s width just in case, but he just slid into the side of me!”

The Oreca was whipped into a spin, and Jody saw several more cars going by through the mist, including some of the leading GT cars, before he recovered and headed off in pursuit. “From then on, it was just a case of threading my way back up through the field,” he shrugged.

With grip improving, and the chassis displaying those remarkable capabilities we’d seen in warm-up, it didn’t take long. Within half an hour Firth was overtaking Ralph Meichtry in the #40 Race Performance Oreca to move into tenth in LMP2, one up on qualifying.

The track was steadily drying out, and the rooster tails that had trailed behind the cars during the first laps had died down to occasional plumes just here and there around the track. There was still enough damp to ensure that Firth’s progress continued. “The car was excellent in those conditions, but I was aware that we’d need to look after the tyres, especially after the track began to dry out. Even so, I was still able to maintain a good pace.” By ten past three he’d moved up to seventh in class and was preparing for his first pitstop.

Nearly everyone swapped tyres during that first round of pitlane visits, and Firth was no exception. The team swiftly fitted a set of ‘intermediate’ tyres and sent the Oreca back out again. “The car was still really fast on the inters,” said Firth. “In fact, we weren’t far off the kind of pace we’d been hoping to set in the dry, so that was really encouraging. Nick (Reynolds, team manager) had said he wanted to triple-stint the tyres, so I took care to manage my pace and look after the tyres as best I could.”

Having worked his way back up to seventh in class, Jody stayed there for the next forty minutes or so, easing back just enough to hold the position, but not pushing too hard to jeopardise the tyres. That was when the message flashed up on the timing screen to inform everyone that the Murphy Prototypes Oreca #48 had been issued with a stop go penalty for “violation of article 71.1.1”.

A quick rummage through the small print revealed that this paragraph related to the requirement that the qualifying drivers in LMP2 should indeed take the race start, yet Greg Murphy had been given written permission from Race Control to make the swap. There were some long faces in the Murphy pit garage but Nick Reynolds had no choice, and a next time around Jody Firth was instructed to bring the #48 burbling to a halt in the pitlane to fulfil the penalty. “We sought clarification before qualifying that we could qualify with one driver and then start the race with another, and they said yes,” explained Firth. “From that discussion we assumed it would be OK for me start the race.”

Firth returned to the track to complete his second stint, pitting again at four-fifteen to hand over to Brendon Hartley. Not all Firth’s hard work had been for nothing, and while the 40 seconds or more lost to the stop-go had cost the team a place, he still finished his double stint in a strong eighth in class.

Now on slicks, Brendon Hartley was swiftly up to speed, and after just two or three laps of his first ever stint in a prototype, he set a new fastest lap for the #48 Oreca of 2:11.345. That pace took him through to 16th overall and 7th in LMP2. “The car felt really good, and it was lovely to drive, but I did make a few basic errors in traffic, especially at the beginning of my stint,” he admitted. “I was cursing myself afterwards, but I learned so much in those first few laps.”

Despite his reticent comments after the race, Hartley was really flying during it, and the times he was setting were consistently among the quickest in LMP2. He posted several more quick laps and then, nearing the end of his first stint, he clocked a 2:10.824 to be the first P2 driver to duck under two-eleven. When others started to take to the pits, he found himself running fourth in class. “I kept the pace as quick as I could, but I was still surprised to discover we were running so high,” he grinned. “I thoroughly enjoyed it out there. There were a few occasions early on when I’d hesitated a bit before making a pass, but by the end of the stint I was anticipating where I’d catch up with the slower cars, and getting through far more cleanly, and quickly.”

Hartley continued to impress, going quicker still (2:10.699) to start narrowing the gap on the #35 Oak Morgan. Meanwhile the #26 Signatech Oreca Nissan was encountering the first of what would be several problems, and after running second in class, headed for the pitlane and an extended stop for attention. That allowed Hartley to consolidate his hold on fourth, and by the time he came in at five-seventeen for fuel, the place looked fairly secure.

Three hours into the race and Simon Dolan had the #28 Jota Zytek Nissan holding a 23 second lead over Tor Graves in the #25 ADR-Delta Oreca, with David Heinemeir Hansson and the #35 Oak another twenty-odd seconds back in third. Still consistently quickest in the class, and continuing to make strides through towards the sharp end, Brendon Hartley in fourth had closed to within 20 seconds.

Hartley’s pace was taking about 5 seconds out of Heinemeir Hansson’s advantage with every lap, but the 22 year-old was denied the pleasure of taking the Oak on track when the Dane took to the pitlane, allowing Hartley through unopposed.

At ten to six it was Hartley’s turn to pit, handing over the baton to Warren Hughes, but the man from Newcastle-upon-Tyne hadn’t been in the car more than five minutes before there was a coming-together at La Source between Tracy Krohn in his eponymous Ferrari and Perez Companc in the #49 Pecom Oreca. The latter had gone for a gap down the inside that Krohn already had his eye on, and next second the F458 was facing the wrong way and the two were nose-to-nose across the racing line. With a tendril of steam rising from Krohn’s Ferrari, and neither car moving, the first safety car of the race took to the track.

The net result was to bunch up all the various individual battles, with gaps narrowed down to tenths. Warren Hughes found himself right behind Bas Leinders in the #35 Oak, while Tor Graves and Sam Hancock were equally twinned for the class lead.

It didn’t take long to clear away the Krohn-Pecom incident, and racing resumed within ten minutes. But two laps later it was yellow flags all over again, and we had another safety car deployment. The #43 Extreme Limite Norma had spun off at speed at the top of Eau Rouge and made heavy rear-end contact with the barriers. Philippe Haezebrouck was extracted safely, but the car was extensively damaged, and as we write is even doubtful for its Le Mans start next month.

Warren Hughes was not enjoying the ride. “I lost so much temperature from the tyres when we were running behind the safety car that, when it came to the first restart, I just got swamped. It took a few laps to get the heat back into the tyres again, and then we had the second safety car. Once again, the tyres cooled and I couldn’t maintain grip. On top of that, Nick had asked us to conserve fuel, so we wouldn’t need a splash’n’dash at the end, so I couldn’t use any of the usual tricks to try and keep the tyres warm. You can’t do the kind of exercises that generate the heat and save fuel at the same time. It’s one or the other.”

So, when the safety car pulled off again at six-twelve, Warren had to watch Leinders pulling away again, but the gap that had stood at over 20 seconds before the interlude was down to just a few seconds. Warren had to endure a couple of slow-ish laps while he worked the heat back into the tyres, and by half-past he was back on top form once again. A new fastest first sector for the Murphy Prototypes Oreca brought him back within sight of the Oak, and Warren then maintained some fairly merciless pressure, harrying the Morgan with a 2:10.357 to close to within a second.

If Warren was quick, so too was Leinders, and the two were both closing on Graves, just 14 seconds to the good in second place. At quarter-to Leinders pitted the Oak Morgan, allowing Hughes through to third. A couple of laps later, Tor Graves followed suit, and Hughes found himself running second in P2. When Sam Hancock followed Graves into the pitlane next lap round, the Murphy Prototypes Oreca took the class lead for the first time in the race.

It was a brief honour – just one lap, in fact – with Hughes himself heading for fuel two minutes later. With confusion at the pitlane entrance, where the #23 Signatech Oreca was nose-on into the wall, Hughes rejoined just behind a flying Robbie Kerr, who’d taken over in the #25 ADR-Delta Oreca and set a new personal best lap of 2:10.494. There were fourteen seconds between them.

That left Sam Hancock leading LMP2 by 23 seconds over Robbie Kerr in the #25 and Warren Hughes third, but closing on Kerr. They were small gains, lap by lap, but they all added up. By half-past seven the gap had narrowed to about six seconds, and we had a real race on our hands for the finish.

Hopes to triple stint the tyres on the Murphy Oreca proved optimistic, and when Warren came in at the end of his second stint it was easy for Nick Reynolds to make the snap decision to fit a fresh set and, under the circumstances, give Brendon Hartley another stab behind the wheel. “After those two stints it was fairly clear we wouldn’t be able to do the triple, so when I came back in we swapped drivers as well,” said Hughes.

With half an hour to go and the overall win a foregone conclusion (one way of four), attention focused on the skirmish for GTE-pro and the equally thrilling but not quite so close battle in LMP2. Simon Dolan, going for the drive of his life, resumed just behind Robbie Kerr after the pitstops, but was cutting three or four seconds out of that deficit each time around. ADR-Delta had opted not to change Kerr’s tyres at the last stop, and while the strategy saved time in the pitlane, it was costing Robbie dearly on track.

Not only was Dolan catching Kerr, but so too was Brendon Hartley. He’d slipped back into the groove and was posting sub-elevens again, including an impressive 2:10.848 that brought the gap down on Hancock to 17 seconds. “Brendon was so quick out there,” enthused Greg Murphy, “but watching him lapping like that probably shortened my lifespan by about a year!” Next time around Hartley had chopped away another three seconds, but time was running out, and so was the fuel. Warned that there was a risk the tank wouldn’t go the distance, he had to ease back, and over the final fifteen minutes or so the gap grew again. Third looked secure, with a lap in hand over the #35 Oak, but better that than having to make an additional pitstop. “We didn’t want to have to stop again, so I couldn’t push as hard as I had in the earlier stint,” suggested Hartley.

A last-gasp stop for a splash of fuel cost ADR and Robbie Kerr the win, but the pass through was so keen that the #25 Oreca emerged just far enough ahead of Hartley to ensure that Kerr took the chequered flag in second. Brendon Hartley claimed third in his sportscar racing debut, and helped Murphy Prototypes secure an historic first podium for an Irish team in endurance racing in 36 years.

Post Race

“We had a much better car for the race than we had in qualifying,” said Warren Hughes. “It was absolutely mega in the wet – a huge step forwards. We saw that from the times we could set during the warm up. I think we had a significant advantage when the track was wet, and we could probably have done with a bit more rain during the race. I knew Jody would do a great job, and Brendon drove a blinder. Having every stint competitive like that is just so motivating for the whole team, and it’s exciting to think we can turn up to an event like this and know we’ve got a real chance of a good result.”

“This has been such a great achievement by the whole team,” said Jody Firth, who won LMP2 at Spa last year with TDS Racing. “This has been only our second race under Greg’s leadership, and it’s been a good solid start to the season and a great result this weekend – and (perhaps with reference to the curious penalty decision) it could have been even better! We’re still very new to the car, and the dry performance needs some development, but this weekend has been a great leap forwards for us. It’s so rare to get three drivers that are only a tenth or so apart in pace, and if this is our line-up or the future, then we’re looking good.”

“I’m feeling absolutely blown away,” admitted a visibly delighted Greg Murphy. “Nick Reynolds put together a terrific car, but this is such an incredible result. I always thought we’d do well with the three drivers we’ve got this weekend, but it was still amazing to get onto the podium. The three of them have been absolutely brilliant all weekend. I was just so proud to see the Irish flag up there above the podium, and I can’t think when we last saw that. It’s probably the first time at an FIA event since Eddie Jordan’s team was on the podium in F1. Wonderful!” Murphy’s enthusiasm for the sport and easy-going temperament is like a breath of fresh Irish air through the paddock, and a delight to see. One wonders what he’d have been like if the car had finished any higher up the order. “Oh, we were very disappointed to be given that penalty, and without it I think we’d have had a fair chance of winning today, but I’m still over the moon!”

The team now has a month to prepare for their next big challenge – the Le Mans 24 Hours. On this performance, the odds on a strong run from the Murphy crew must have shortened considerably.

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