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James Courtney says Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 debutant Broc Feeney will have to forget about a heavy Super2 Series crash and “get on with it” at The Mountain.
The 17-year-old, who turns 18 tomorrow, lost control of his Ford Falcon FGX at Brock’s Skyline and suffered significant damage after clouting the concrete wall on approach to the Dipper.
Courtney, who will be joined by Feeney in the #44 Boost Mobile Racing entry in this year’s Great Race, said he’d console his Tickford Racing team-mate.
“First time going over the top tomorrow morning he’ll be a little bit slower,” said Courtney.
“I said to him all weekend, crashing is part of what we do mate. If we’re not crashing, we’re not trying hard enough.
“Obviously there’s a fine line and we overstep it at times. If you can get through your career without having crashes it’s not a good thing.
“I just reminded him of how many cars I’ve written off, and at really bad times in a race weekend as well.
“The good thing about this group is they understand the ramifications of what we’re doing and when things do go wrong, things like that happen. Broc will be fine. I’ll have a chat with him.
“Paul (Forgie, Engineer) I’m sure will be playing it down as well saying, ‘You’ve got your crash off you back now, let’s press on in the main game’ sort of thing.
“He’s a super talented young kid. I always said the speed wouldn’t be the issue, it’ll be about managing the emotions of this weekend.
“My line to him was; something is always going to go wrong this weekend at some point, whether that be in the race or practice. It’s about forgetting about it and just getting on with it and not harping on it or letting it affect the rest of your weekend.
“This is the first lesson for him. He’ll be fine, we’ll get around him and pump him up a bit and get on with it.”
The pair are one of three Tickford Racing entries in the Top 10 Shootout.
Courtney qualified ninth on Friday with Cameron Waters fourth in the Monster Energy Racing entry while Lee Holdsworth claimed provisional pole for Truck Assist Racing.
Courtney will have a chance to improve his the pair’s place on the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 with this afternoon’s Top 10 Shootout, which will take place at 17:05 local time/AEDT.
