Walkinshaw Andretti United’s Chaz Mostert went from virtually unbeatable pace at Wanneroo, where he was first to the chequered flag in both races, to qualifying no higher than 20th at Hidden Valley.
Courtney himself finished sixth and 14th in Perth in his Blanchard Racing Team Mustang but then 23rd in both races in Darwin, while even Triple Eight Race Engineering has had its ups and downs, although more so Broc Feeney than Will Brown.
According to Courtney, teams can no longer rely on a base set-up to suit each circuit and tyre compound combination, noting the field rolled out on the soft at the abrasive Wanneroo then the super soft at the relatively high-grip Hidden Valley.
“The racing is [about] tyre management,” he declared.
“So, it’s a car that’s fast and doesn’t thrash the tyre, and you saw [Triple Eight], especially at Darwin, really were able to control the tyre and really run the thing quite aggressively and quick without burning the tyre off where everyone else was sort of struggling with that.
“The round before, it was Chaz and he was gone, so it has swung a lot this year, probably more so this year than previous years.
“To be honest, being involved in it all, it’s a bit confusing.
“At Perth, we rolled out and we’re pretty speedy, and then Darwin, we struggled to come last.
“You’re sort of doing everything the same but, for some reason, the window shifts so much depending on what tyre we’re on – whether it’s super soft or soft or hard – the track condition, surface…
“You know, gone are the days where, previously, we would have a good base set-up and you could sort of half run that at the majority of places we go and really just tweak it a little.
“It seems to have to be big swings with events that we go to now, so it’s probably harder work and it’s become more of an engineering championship.
“That depth, I suppose, at Triple Eight really shows with the results like they had a couple of weekends ago.”
Tyre overheating has long been a talking point in Supercars, with a test of a proposed new spec for 2025 being conducted in recent days at Queensland Raceway.
Mostert was wary of how WAU would fare on the super soft tyre at Hidden Valley and, unfortunately for him, his concerns were vindicated, at least so far as qualifying performance is concerned.
Feeney, on the other hand, won both races, with Brown making for a Triple Eight one-two on the Sunday when they finished 16 seconds ahead of third-placed Brodie Kostecki.
They were joined on the podium by Head of Performance Pete Ringwood, a largely unknown figure outside the four walls at Banyo but someone whose path crossed with Courtney at Walkinshaw.
The latter said of Triple Eight, “Week in, week out, even if they sort of roll out and they’re not quick, they can turn the thing around so quick, and I think it’s just down to the depth in the team with their engineering.
“I think Pete Ringwood’s a brain in there that probably doesn’t get enough credit for what he deserves.
“I think he does an amazing job – all the guys there do –and the two boys, they’re obviously steering the thing pretty well.
“They’re having a great little championship of their own at the moment, but hopefully the rest of the field can catch up and start to mix it up with them.”
Courtney is currently 18th in the championship in this, his first year at BRT, and the first for the Box Hill-based outfit as a full-time two-car squad.
“I’m not really at the end of the championship – the position – where we want to be,” admitted the Snowy River Caravans Mustang driver.
“But, BRT is three years old, expanding to two cars… It’s been a big learning process but we’re still slugging away and hopefully we can start to turn the thing towards the front.”
The NTI Townsville 500 takes place this weekend (July 5-7).
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