The discovery is that, in his words, motor racing is “f***ing cool”.
The 2010 Supercars champion walked away from full-time racing at the end of last season, this year kicking off a three-pronged career that includes his work in real estate, an enduro seat with Team 18 and a prominent role in the new-look TV line-up.
It is the latter that has proven more enjoyable than he expected, and given him a fresh perspective on a sport that has consumed his life.
“I’m enjoying it so much more than I thought I would,” he told Speedcafe.
“The crazy thing is you spend your whole [driving] life zoning everything out on race weekends, hiding in the truck and looking at data, talking with your engineers, all that sort of stuff.
“You’re so focussed on the performance side of things. I never understood how everyone got excited when you’re on the grid. They’d be like, ‘this is awesome’ and I was just like, ‘yeah, whatever’.
“But since I don’t have the racing side and I’m there hearing and feeling the atmosphere… it is f***ing cool.
“When you’re on the grid and you can feel the tension between the drivers, and I know what they’re going through, and the music’s going, I’m like, ‘f*** this is pretty cool’.
“So the TV stuff has been awesome. I’m sort of a new race fan, I guess. I love the racing, but I never was a race fan. Whereas now I’m a mad race fan.
“It’s been great and Jess [Yates] has been really, really good and Chad [Neylon] and the whole broadcast team with welcoming me and giving me pointers on how to present. It’s been really, really cool and a really smooth transition.”
Such is Courtney’s enjoyment with the broadcast aspect of his new life that he has put any plans to do other racing outside of Supercars on the back burner.
“At the moment I’m not looking at other racing,” he explained.
“I was looking at doing some GT stuff with Shane Smollen and the Kollosche car, just with that connection with the real estate side of things. But no, I’m just concentrating on the TV and having a good enduro campaign with Team 18.”
Given he’s so fresh out of full-time driving, there are no concerns from Courtney that a lack of miles could leave him rusty coming into the long-distance races, where he’ll partner David Reynolds.
“It sounds weird, but it’s muscle memory,” he said. “I don’t want to sound like an idiot or a bighead or anything, but when you jump out and jump back in, it all just happens naturally.
“For 38 years I’ve been doing this, so it’s natural to have all that feel. And in a qualifying situation, where you need to get the last few tenths out of it, that’s Dave’s job.
“My job is just to not make a chump of myself at lunchtime, running around in the hot part of the day, then hand it over to the main man, and Davey crosses the finish line while I’m having a beer on the last lap.”
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