Young racer Cooper Murray will take his next step up the Porsche Motorsport Pyramid later this month when lining up for the 2019 Porsche Carrera Cup Australia season opener at the Adelaide 500.

The 17-year-old Melbourne-based driver was one of the stand-out performers in last year’s Porsche Michelin GT3 Cup Challenge Australia series, scoring eight race wins and narrowly missing out on the 2018 series title.

With a season of Porsche one-make experience, Murray will continue with Ashley Seward Motorsport for his first Carrera Cup season.

“I’m certainly excited for the season ahead,” said Murray.

“I had a great season in GT3 Cup Challenge last year and achieved far more than I expected. The series was great preparation for Carrera Cup as the cars are obviously very similar with a lot of talented drivers. Naturally Carrera Cup’s on-track competition is at another level and I can’t wait to be in the same field as the likes of David Wall, Warren Luff and Steven Richards, a five-time Bathurst 1000 winner.

“It’s going to be a massive challenge and hopefully a great learning year for me. The Adelaide 500 can’t come soon enough.”

Murray follows in the footsteps of several successful Porsche one-make drivers who have used GT3 Cup Challenge as a springboard to Carrera Cup. Two such examples, Matt Campbell and Jaxon Evans, won the Carrera Cup title in their second attempts before winning the Porsche Motorsport Junior Programme Shootout, a development pathway Murray hopes to replicate.

“Our goal is to run a two-year Carrera Cup programme; the first year will be to learn all the tracks as I’ve only been to two of the eight tracks on the calendar. Hopefully then I can have a crack at the championship in the second year with the intention to continue my climb of the Porsche Motorsport Pyramid into Europe.”