Source: Eastern Institute of Technology – Tairāwhiti
10 mins ago
New Zealand Motorsport legend Greg Murphy undergoing heat training at EIT’s Heat Training Facility at the EIT Institute of Sport and Health in Hastings.
Training in a Heat Training Facility at the EIT Institute of Sport and Health (EIT ISH) is the final piece of a six month-long regime for Greg Murphy.
The New Zealand motorsport legend and four-time Bathurst 1000 champion, who retired from Supercars in 2014, was set to return to the Mount Panorama later this month but MIQ troubles have curtailed his return.
In his first session in the facility, Greg was joined by high school mate Mike Rabbitte and Australian motor racing commentator Greg Rust, who have been on the journey with him.
While admittedly working out on a watt bike with temperatures reaching more than 30C is “not very enjoyable,” he couldn’t rate the facility, and its impact any higher.
“I know it works. It’s really good,” he says. “It’s combining all the training that we have been doing which is pretty much exactly what I used to do when I was driving professionally.”
Hawke’s Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust Strength and Conditioning Coach Roy Haffner has been monitoring his progress and guiding him through the training.
“It’s been so awesome having Roy and the team supporting us and having that leadership from them and their expertise allowing us to be here and do the things you need to do to be prepared to drive a supercar.”
Greg was due to leave for Australia on Sunday but missed out on a place in MIQ upon his return. Without a definitive ability to return home to his family and business in Hawke’s Bay, he says he isn’t prepared to take the risk.
But regardless of not being able to compete, he says it has “still been a great process”. He has been training alongside his friends since May, with the in-car training to be done in Australia, which due to the pandemic hasn’t been able to take place.
He says everything from isometric neck exercises to using the EIT Heat Training Facility is all designed to be as prepared as they possibly can be.
“And the beauty of coming here and doing this and utilising the facility compared to if I had been left alone to do it, I wouldn’t be anywhere near as prepared because you’re just being motivated and pushed.”
He has enjoyed being able to train with Mike and Greg. “We’re all doing it for different reasons, but we’ve all been turning up and we’ve all been motivating each other which has been fantastic, and Roy’s been motivating us massively.”
“We all needed to be doing more than what we were. Probably this has gone to a higher level than if we all decided to just do some more training and fitness but because I needed to focus on a whole lot of stuff and have someone planning our training and everything this is why we came here.”
Kirsten Westwood, Assistant Head of School, at EIT’ School of Health & Sport Science, says the services they offer at the Lab “may surprise you”.
“The facility that we offer in Hawke’s Bay is state-of-the-art and to attract someone of Greg’s calibre shows that we can support people who really need to improve their performance.”
For more details on the services available at the EIT Institute of Sport and Health, please go to https://www.eit.ac.nz/about/services-to-the-public/sport-science-services/equipment-and-facilities/.
