James Courtney says that his win in Race 2 of the V8 Supercars Championship at the Yas Marina Circuit was the best of his career.
After a horror start to his Middle Eastern weekend that included poor qualifying, a early race clash and the subsequent 50 point penalty, Courtney bounced back in the best way possible, taking a brilliant win in Saturday night’s race.
In only his third race meeting for the Toll Holden Racing Team (his first two were during the 2005 endurance races),the reigning V8 Supercars Champion says that tonight’s win was a career highlight.
“I’d say it’s probably my best win, especially with all the stuff over the off-season, with all the hype and build up,” Courtney said.
“And then after yesterday, it was a credit to the team, Scotty (Sinclair) my engineer and everyone pulling together and having the belief in each other.
“It think it’s the first of many, definitely.
“We had all of the ingredients, we just needed a bit of a change around. It was definitely a fantastic effort.”
In a race dictated by fuel strategy, Courtney says that all credit goes to his new team.
“It was all about managing the fuel. We knew it would be tight so we were taking very easy with everything. We managed to save enough and finish off,” he said.
“I was halfway down the straight before I even got full throttle for about the last 15 laps.
“I saw Brighty coming and he wanted to race, which I didn’t really want to do because I had no fuel to play with!”
After starting tonight’s race with negative 23 points after his post-race penalty from Race 1, Courtney now sits 12th in the championship standings.
For more with James Courtney, see Speedcafe.com.au’s video below …
