Tickford Racing’s James Courtney has explained his bizarre four-wide crash in the final Supercars race at Pukekohe Park Raceway.
The #5 Ford Mustang driver was involved in an opening corner incident for the second day in a row at the ITM Auckland SuperSprint.
Having survived a squeeze in Saturday’s Race 27, Courtney was not so lucky in a similar chain of events off the start of Race 29 on Sunday.
His Snowy River Caravans entry was sandwiched between team-mate Jake Kostecki and Truck Assist Racing’s Todd Hazelwood, clipping the left-rear wheel of the latter.
That sent Courtney spinning heavily into the concrete wall, and while he was unharmed, the race was over for the #5.
The DNF followed on from a 16th-place finish in Race 28.
“It was a pretty frustrating day, to be honest,” Courtney lamented.
“We struggled big time in qualifying and just couldn’t put the lap together which put us down the back of both races, obviously that makes things pretty difficult and we learned the hard way about being back there later on.
“We picked up a few spots in the first race which was okay, but the second race was over pretty quickly.
“Bizarrely it was another four-wide into Turn 1 scenario, Jake was outside of me so I was trying to look after him, and Todd clipped my right rear and away we went.”
Supercars teams now shift into enduro mode, with the Repco Bathurst 1000 from October 6-9.
Courtney will share the driving duties with Zane Goddard, who is on the hunt for a full-time return to the main game next year.
“It’s a really tough way to end the weekend, but we’ll regroup and turn our focus to Bathurst.
“We’ll have a good test day next week and I’m really looking forward to teaming up with my little mate Zane for the big one.”
Shane van Gisbergen won Race 29 in front of his home crowd after a hair-raising battle with Cameron Waters.
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