AUSTRALIAN SPEEDWAY: VALE GEOFF MURPHY
Media release Sprintcars Australia:
It is with heavy hearts that Sprintcars Australia farewells Geoff Murphy, a man whose fingerprints are on seven decades of Australian speedway and one of the true giants of our sport.
A worthy inductee into the Claremont Speedway Hall of Fame in 2000, Geoff served the sport of Sprintcar racing from the very inception of the Sprintcar Entrants Group as an administrator, right up until his passing. Seventy years in the game and he was still at it. Still in the workshop. Still on the shock dyno. Still offering advice to anyone smart enough to ask.
Australia’s best know exactly what a Murphy car means. Geoff’s chassis building and crew chief skills carried some of the biggest names in dirt track racing. Alf Barbagallo, Keith Mann, Warrenne Ekins, Shane Murphy, Mark Wells, Neville Lance and Bob Trostle here at home, and in America, Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell. His legendary status was built on results, and the list is staggering.
Geoff’s involvement in motor racing began when he was the chief machine examiner at the West Australian road racing circuits, Caversham and Wanneroo. While operating his own business, Geoff Murphy Panel Beaters, he was approached by Paul Johnson, later to become well known as a flag waver, to build him a Speedcar in the ‘seventies. With help from Bob Farmer and Geoff Stanton, the first Murphy car was created.
After some time as the machine examiner for the WA Speedcar Drivers’ Association, Murphy constructed a unique monocoque Speedcar for Stanton to race during the 1973/74 season. He also modified Des Nash’s Chevy II to house a Volkswagen motor, and then built several more Volkswagen Speedcars for local drivers.
Then came Alf Barbagallo’s imported Sprintcar that was not handling very well. After some tinkering Barbagallo lapped the entire field at Bunbury, and Murphy became a permanent fixture on his team. It is a fact that Barbagallo himself considered Murphy a major factor in his success, coming second in the Australian Sprintcar Championship, winning six WA titles, and taking out more feature races at Claremont Speedway than any other driver.
Garry Rush won the 1983 Australian Sprintcar Championship driving a Murphy car. Murphy has supported veteran WA Sprintcar driver Mark Wells for his whole career, and Wells has won four WA titles, two WSS rounds and many more other events. He has built winning Formula 500s for Australian Champions Matt Brown, Trevor Harding and his son Daniel Harding.
Murphy also linked up with Keith Mann, who won three Australian Speedcar Championships, built cars, and was flown over to major meetings by Darwin’s Warrenne Ekins, who won four Australian Speedcar titles. He has built many cars for WA veteran Neville Lance, who placed in several Australian Speedcar titles and won seven WA Championships.
In 1980, while helping Bob Trostle at the Knoxville Nationals, Murphy assisted USA legend Sprintcar driver Steve Kinser to fit his engine into a Trostle car after his own was wrecked. Kinser went on to win the Knoxville Nationals that year. In America Geoff polished his skills, and he has always thought outside the square, never afraid to try something different. His son Shane was the test pilot for his father’s many innovative ideas, such as the laydown Sprintcar motor.
Murphy has served as President of both the national Sprintcar body and the Sprintcar Association of WA for many years. He has been a member of the Safety and Regulations Advisory Committee of the WA Speedway Commission (Speedway West), and Chairman of the West Australian Speedway Commission Track Grading Committee.
The workshop is a partial museum for speedway, with two of Steve Kinser’s original Trostle Sprintcar stowed away upstairs. Endless posters and trophies thanking Murphy from stars of the sport line the inner walls of the building.
Murphy was still very active on the West Australian scene, and regularly looked after several Sprintcars, Speedcars and Formula 500s on the same night at the Perth Motorplex.
Despite his 81 years on the planet, Mr Murphy was still very much active in preparing race cars, working on shock absorbers, and offering advice to racers, which is something he had done for a lifetime.
Condolences to his family, along with his speedway friends during this difficult time.
