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James Courtney’s high-profile manager Alan Gow is in Australia for the next week, intent on securing his star’s future team in the V8 Supercars Championship Series.
Speedcafe.com.au’s Grant Rowley spoke to the ex-pat Aussie about Courtney’s future, his long relationship with Courtney and the British Touring Car Championship …
SPEEDCAFE: You’ve come to town at a very interesting time. There’s a lot going on in the background, but championship-wise, he has a lot to think about over the next few weeks …
ALAN GOW: For sure, the championship is James’s only focus. As far as the business goes, that’s my job. I don’t drive the car, he drives the car and I drive the business.
SPEEDCAFE: It’s been an enduring relationship. How long have you guys been together?
AG: Funnily enough, we were talking about that yesterday, and we worked out that it has been 13 years. It’s probably one of the longest driver/manager relationships that is going around.
SPEEDCAFE: From memory, Neil Crompton played his part in you guys getting together …
AG: Yeah, Neil knew James’s father (Jim). Neil introduced us and asked me if I’d be interested in managing him. We met at Sydney and I think it was just after Bathurst one year and we took it from there.
Neil formed the introduction, if you like, and I thought about it for a while and we’ve gone from there. It has been pretty successful.
SPEEDCAFE: There’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes for you, making sure James is in the best seat possible – and it appears you have a couple of pretty good options …
AG: We’re certainly spoilt for choice.
The things that have happened this year are out of our control. There’s certain things going on that have nothing to do with us. What happens in the board room is out of our control. We just have to let those things happen and work out where we go after that.
SPEEDCAFE: Do you have a timeline on a decision?
AG: I’m here for a week, and when I jump on the plane home and go back to the UK, I’ll know exactly what we’re doing and I’ll have it all sorted out by then.
SPEEDCAFE: In terms of an announcement, will we have to wait until 2011?
AG: I can’t even answer that question because it depends on what we do. All we can do is work out what we’re going to do and make an announcement in due course.
SPEEDCAFE: Besides your interest in James’ future, you remain the boss of the British Touring Car Championship. And like V8 Supercars, your category is about to go through a significant shift with the new generation cars …
AG: It’s something we’ve worked on for the past two years. We introduced the new car at Brands Hatch, and it’s a phased-introduction – it will happen over the next three years, and it has been done like that to protect the current cars.
It’s an exciting car and perfect for the British championship.
