Heletranz Helicopter V Greg Murphy

The roar of the V8 Supercars returned to Pukekohe Park Raceway last month, and the clever folk behind the race came up with a promotional stunt that was just too good to ignore - a helicopter racing against a V8 Supercar. Think Top Gear meets MythBusters, and you'll get a sense of why this was a race that had to be seen to be believed, and was well covered by Campbell Live reporter, Tristram Clayton. This was a stunt that has never before been attempted in New Zealand which led to a fast and furious competition between two very different machines. For those doing the driving, this was the ultimate chance to really push the limits.

Not unsurprisingly, racing star Greg Murphy was blitzed on the Pukekohe race track by Steve Clarke with Murphy being at a slight disadvantage in his V8 SuperTourer while Clarke flew above in a Heletranz helicopter. As Murphy said, the race was a bit of fun to promote the ITM 500 V8 Supercar race in Auckland the following weekend. However, the self-proclaimed helicopter fan, who also has his helicopter pilot’s licence, said he was always keen to be involved with anything to do with the “whirly birds”, saying the match up was not a conventional one but it was a bit of fun.

Murphy said he was doing up to 240 kilometres an hour on the straights but it was not enough to beat Clarke’s helicopter. He was good-natured about the rare loss but said he was looking forward to watching a video of the race to determine whether Clarke cheated as “He wasn’t constrained by two white lines”.

Murphy reckoned he would have finished the three laps in about three minutes and 30 seconds judging on past races but he did not know the exact time as it was difficult to keep an eye on the helicopter, which, as he said, would turn up in unexpected places. However, the helicopter flew above the car on the straights.

As Murphy said, he had not ruled out a re-match but next time he hoped to be behind the stick in the helicopter and Clarke would be at the wheel of V8 Holden SuperTourer, clearly showing that he would prefer to fly the Heletranz helicopter than his usual race car.

To discover more about Heletranz, please feel free to visit their website at http://www.heletranz .