Courtney says Winton tangle ‘another kick in the face’

The former factory Holden outfit has struggled for form for far this season, and is not on the hunt for a new tech chief after team manager Adrian Burgess was let go just over a week ago.

However, the team looked to be set to have a change of fortune today, only for Courtney to be denied an unlikely Top 10 result when he crashed out on the last lap of the race.

It was a rollercoaster race for Courtney, who qualified poorly, and then found himself right at the back of the field after tangling with James Moffat on the first lap.

But a 26-lap first stint proved to be a stroke of strategic prowess, and put him right in the midfield with very good tyre qualify for the final third of the race.

Courtney charged his way through to 11th, and was set to crack the Top 10 when he and Percat clashed doors on the run to Turn 4 on the final lap. The HSV Commodore spun across the front of Percat’s BJR entry, leaving Courtney stuck in the sand and out of the race.

“I got passed him and then he lunged again and he was blocking like crazy,” said Courtney.

“On the last lap I got really good turn, got up the inside of him and ended up spinning off to the left. It’s not the way you want it to end.

“Considering where we’ve been [a Top 10] would have been good, but unfortunately another one goes away.

“We had a massive swing at [the set-up] for the race and it was working well. The car felt completely different to what it’s felt all year, so there’s some good and bad points that we’ll trawl through tonight.

“But I’m gutted. We’ve had a hell of a time here with everything going on and to have that is just another kick in the face.

“We do it because we love it, at points. Hopefully the love comes back.”

Percat, who finished 10th after a lack of rear grip saw him tumble through the field as the race wore on, also reacted to the Courtney tangle post race, claiming that he was being hit in the rear bar ‘pretty aggressively’.