Greg Murphy will partner Neil Crompton in Tony Quinn’s McLaren MP4 12C for the final round of the Australian GT Championship at Highlands Park after a series of late seat swaps.
Murphy will replace fellow Kiwi Craig Baird, who was initially slated to debut the car alongside Crompton, for the November 8-10 event.
Baird has moved into the Porsche GT3R of Klark Quinn, which had featured V8 Supercars star Fabian Coulthard on an initial entry list distributed last month.
Coulthard has in turn be moved across to partner Tony Quinn’s in the category and circuit owner’s Aston Martin.
Murphy, who endured a disastrous Pirtek Enduro Cup campaign with the Holden Racing Team, says he’s excited to get behind the wheel of the McLaren.
McLaren is sending an engineer, Andy Scott, from the United Kingdom to configure the car to the latest GT3 configuration and provide technical support for the team throughout the weekend.
“Obviously the McLaren is a beautiful piece of equipment and I watched Bairdo set the Highlands lap record in it in March,” said Murphy.
“Both Neil and I are excited to drive the McLaren – with all the wonderful links of the McLaren name for New Zealand motor racing fans – in its Australasian GT debut.
“There certainly aren’t many other cars like it.”
Murphy has already made two GT appearances so far this year, driving Jim Manolios’ Trofeo Motorsport Corvette Z06.R at Bathurst and Queensland Raceway.
Having joined Murphy and Manolios at Bathurst, former Formula 1 driver Ivan Capelli will again pair with the car owner at Highlands Park.