Ronan Murphy will be looking to ride the momentum into what is arguably the most important three-week span of the 2023 Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia season.
The series will tackle Sydney Motorsport Park next weekend as a support category for the Repco Supercars Championship before making the trip up north for the fifth round of the Shannons SpeedSeries at Queensland Raceway just two weeks later.
With two rounds already in the books for 2023, Murphy currently sits 58 points behind his New Zealand compatriot and series leader Marco Giltrap after picking up his first race win last month in Tasmania.
“It’s not going to be easy, but anything is possible”
But with six rounds spread across a lengthy 10 months, Murphy knows that the upcoming schedule provides a perfect opportunity to gain some further momentum in his title fight.
“It’s going to be really interesting; it’s been a hard year for everybody with a six-round championship spread across 10 months, meaning there isn’t a lot of driving time,” Murphy said.
“It’s going to be cool to have the back-to-back rounds, it will be a really good chance to go from one track to another without much time to sit back down.”
Despite his eagerness to get behind the wheel of his Sonic Motor Racing Services-backed Porsche 911 GT3, the 21-year-old knows that patience is a virtue to working his way closer to the series lead.
“The most important thing is being consistent; a couple of guys have been really fast and up the front this year, but their speed doesn’t correlate to where they sit in the title fight,” Murphy explained.
“The biggest thing I take out of it is not just trying to be a hero all the time, but to be smart, consistent and bring the car back in one piece.
“Winning races and getting podiums are important, but I’m still getting used to things, so I like to stay out of trouble and capitalise on others making bad decisions.”
With only two rounds remaining after Queensland Raceway, Murphy knows how important it is to use his previous experiences with the series leader.
“It’s very easy to lose the chance to fight for the title at this point of time in the season, Marco (Giltrap) has done an amazing job so far and has done all the right things, it makes a difference,” Murphy added.
“His first round really set him up, I’ve raced a lot with him in the past and he is a very smart driver who makes the right decisions, all you can really do is put the pressure on him and try and get up in his grill as much as possible.
“It’s not going to be easy, but anything is possible.”
Despite being around racing royalty all his life, the New Zealander hasn’t had the opportunity to race at many of the circuits on this year’s calendar.
“Every track I go to this year is new for me, I have never driven at any of these tracks, a lot of people were under the assumption that I have because of my dad’s work and racing, but I haven’t,” Murphy added.
“I was really excited about Tasmania because I knew nobody else had been, it was going to be a really good chance to capitalise on.
“Sydney and Queensland are going to be tough, the guys raced there last year, and everyone has done testing at both the tracks.
“Queensland Raceway might be the toughest because most of the top teams are based up there, they use it as a test track and they have a lot of data and knowledge to come away with a good result, so getting a result in Sydney is crucial.”
The Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge is one of six national categories to feature at Queensland Raceway in August and will take the track for the first time on Friday for two practice sessions.
Qualifying on Saturday morning will then decide the grid for the weekend’s first of three races.
Saturday’s two races will feature in the Stan Sports coverage, where fans can watch the action live, on-demand and ad-free.
The fourth round of the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge will take place at Queensland Raceway as part of the fifth round of the Shannons SpeedSeries on 11-13 August.
