Massive Courtney crash draws red flag in Melbourne

The #7 Snowy River Racing driver got loose on approach to the turn and slapped the outside wall, leaving the driveshaft behind with 13 minutes left in the session.

Replays missed the crash, leaving Fox Sports commentators Mark Skaife and Neil Crompton to theorise that the car may have missed the Tecpro wall and tyre barrier before striking concrete.

“Because it escaped sideways so early, the trajectory of where the car ended up landing versus the wall on the outside, it looks like it’s missed the tyres and Tecpro,” said Skaife.

“It’s actually made contact with the fence, as in proper concrete barrier. And each of those concrete barriers are roughly four tons.

“Around that circumstance when you arrive there that fast at roughly 150km/h, car sideways, and then bumps itself off the concrete barrier. That’s why it’s had such a disastrous impact on that left rear.”

Courtney’s car was dragged off the road and onto a flatbed truck, leaving the Blanchard Racing Team with a rebuild before Qualifying for Race 4.

“I think he’s okay, but it’s not a good sign when you see bits and pieces of axle and whatever lying on the road,” said John Blanchard.

“The guys are going all right this weekend, so far. We’ve got a busy afternoon by the looks of it.”

Speaking after the incident, Courtney said he wasn’t sure if the team would be able to get the car read in the little more than an hour between sessions.

“It’s such a tight turnaround here. It’s not pretty,” he said.

“As soon as I turned in I lost the rear straight away. It was so bizarre it happened so early. As soon as I put any input in it just snapped super aggressively.

“Disappointing after everything that has happened and the week, the lead-in we’ve had and all that sort of stuff. The last thing we needed was more work.

“We’ll rebuild it. We’ll have a crack this afternoon. We’ll be back at some point.”

Practice 2 resumed after a brief intermission with five minutes left on the clock. All told, it was James Golding whose effort on his fourth lap earlier in the session stood unchallenged.

Red Bull Ampol Racing duo Broc Feeney and Will Brown were among the late improvers to second and third respectively.

“It’s awesome driving around this track for starters,” said Golding.

“High-speed circuit, not too many on the calendar for us at this speed, so really enjoying it out there. This morning the track was pretty slippery and it was a different kettle of fish then.

“We made a couple of tweaks to the car, nothing too major and was sort of letting the track come to us a bit. I’m feeling really comfortable and obviously the time showed it.”

Qualifying for Race 4 gets underway at 3:25pm AEDT before Qualifying for Race 5 at 3:50pm AEDT.

Results: Repco Supercars Championship MSS Security Melbourne SuperSprint, Practice 2