As the first person to lead an Irish team in the world’s biggest motorsport race, Greg Murphy certainly doesn’t lack ambition.
Next month, his Dublin-based privateer Murphy Prototypes will take on the world’s biggest car makers at the Le Mans 24 Hours endurance race, an event named by National Geographic as the greatest sporting spectacle on the planet.
“I think we can win it,” Murphy says. “We led the race in 2012 for five hours until a suspension failure put paid to our chances, and last year we were fastest on test day. We have great drivers and we know the car is reliable. It definitely won’t be for a lack of trying.”
First held in 1923, Le Mans was originally conceived to test the reliability of fledgling cars but it has left an indelible mark on the automotive industry, both on and off the track. Headlights, windscreen wipers, indicators, disc brakes, diesel technology and, more recently, hybrids are just some of the technologies from Le Mans that have trickled down to mass-market vehicles.
The race begins at 4pm on June 18 and for 24 hours the French countryside will resound to the noise of race cars speeding around a 13km circuit. About 46 cars start the race in a series of classes that include prototype high-performance vehicles and dedicated race cars.
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Cars that finish cover around 5,400km or about 18 times the distance of a standard Formula One race. The winner is the team that covers the greatest distance in 24 hours.
Murphy Prototypes first contested the race in 2012 and has been back every year since. Team principal Murphy, 40, from Terenure in Dublin, says: “It’s an amazing event with 236,000 spectators and a festival feel with concerts going through the night. It must be incredible for spectators but I’m so focused on making sure everything goes right there’s no room to take it in.”
Running a team in the six-race European Le Mans Series (ELMS) is a huge financial undertaking and drivers must raise about €500,000 to sign for a team, but Le Mans has a powerful draw.
“We do six four-hour races in ELMS and Le Mans is 24 hours in one weekend so it accounts for about half of our yearly budget,” says Murphy. “Our turnover for a season is around €2.6m but that’s about a tenth of the budget for a Formula One team. Sports car racing is like a grown-up version of F1. Single-seat racing drivers are typically selfish and self-centred but they have to be because it’s an individual sport. In endurance racing it’s a compromise for all the drivers and they have to change their attitude.”
It costs about €750,000 to run a car at Le Mans but rules dictate that each team has one “gentleman”, or amateur, driver among its ranks. With wealthy racing enthusiasts queuing up for their shot at glory, team principals like Murphy have judgment calls to make.
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“In the past we’ve been lucky enough to attract wealthy drivers,” he says. “It’s a commercial balancing act between a guy who’s very fast and a guy who is maybe not as quick but brings more to the table. We had a couple of crashes last year where the damage amounted to €300,000. We’ll spend €70,000 on tyres this year alone so it’s not cheap.”
Cars reach speeds of up to 320kph along the famed Mulsanne Straight so there’s no margin for error. Drivers must have considerable reserves of skill, speed and stamina to make it through the night. Meanwhile, prototypes such as the Nissan Oreca 03R LMP2 car run by Murphy Prototypes must be able to withstand huge G-forces. The lightweight (900kg) carbon fibre body produces about two tonnes of downforce just to stay on track.
Murphy, who raced in the Asian Formula Three championship before running successful alternative fuel ventures, got his passion for motorsport from his late father, Pat. “Dad raced a 1.3-litre Ford Fiesta Supersport at Mondello Park, which was also the family car. It had a roll cage, and sometimes he would forget to put the silencer on and my mother would drive us to school with the engine screaming. He would take us away to Waterford for a ‘holiday’ and when we got there we’d find out he was taking part in a hill climb.
“I stopped racing in 2005 but came back in 2011 and fell in love with endurance racing.”
In the po-faced world of motorsport, Murphy Prototypes’ upbeat and inclusive approach is refreshing. Despite recently moving into a new workshop near Silverstone following a tie-in with US race team Ave-Riley, it’s still very much an Irish business with an administrative base in Dublin and Irish tricolours sitting proudly on the nose of its cars.
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“There’s probably an element of people thinking of us as the crazy Irish but we are deadly serious,” says Murphy. “Motorsport has lost its personality along the way and takes itself a little too seriously. We’re professional but we like to do it with a smile on our faces. We have established ourselves as one of the best teams and nowadays you’ll see a lot more Irish flags at races. It’s why we are invited back to Le Mans every year.”
Last month at Silverstone, three Irish drivers competed for the team in the first round of this year’s ELMS championship, including Porsche Supercup driver Damien Faulkner, saloon car specialist Michael Cullen and hot prospect Seán Doyle.
Doyle, 22, from Wicklow town, made a stunning debut despite getting just eight laps practice in the car. “I found out the Wednesday before the race that I would be driving,” he says.
“I did one session in the simulator to get used to the brakes and aerodynamics, and a short session on track. I’d never driven anything with that much power before. Greg told me to drive steady and bring the car home in one piece but consistency is quite hard at 290kph. Then, when I saw the car coming down the pit lane towards me, my heart was in my mouth.”
While it’s probably too late for Doyle to get a call-up to Le Mans, Murphy says his protégé has what it takes. “Seán’s an exciting prospect but there’s a lot of hard work involved. In this game, the minute a race ends you start thinking about the next one. We’ve had a motorsport team for the past five years but I feel like we are building a motorsport business here. It’s been a long, hard road but the future is looking bright.”