Courtney Third At Clipsal 500 As SBR Takes First Blood In Teams Championship

JELD-WEN Motorsport’s James Courtney claimed his second podium of the weekend in leg two of the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide today, finishing the 250km race in third position behind Rick Kelly and Todd Kelly.

In a strong performance by the Stone Brothers Racing team, Caltex Racing’s Russell Ingall followed his team mate home in fourth position, giving SBR an early lead in the 2007 V8 Supercar Teams Championship.

Courtney did not have the start to the race that he would have liked, an engine mapping problem in the JELD-WEN Motorsport Falcon causing him to make a slow start off the line. He had dropped to tenth at the first corner and was lucky to escape being hit from behind.

With work to do, he knuckled down, making a gutsy move on Greg Murphy on lap 10 and passing Steven Richards into turn nine on lap 15.

Courtney continued his charge through the field, hauling in Mark Winterbottom on lap 28 before pitting for two rear tyres one lap later.

The JELD-WEN Motorsport driver pressed on after the compulsory stop, breaking the lap record he set in yesterday’s race on lap 32 with a time of 1:22.4348.

Courtney moved up the order to lead the race on lap 47, holding off on his compulsory fuel stop until lap 53 where he rejoined the race in third position, just in front of team mate Russell Ingall.

The pair raced to the flag in the closing stages of the race, a safety car period on lap 64 closing the gap to less than a second between the two.

Courtney and Ingall received the chequered flag line astern, sealing third and fourth position respectively for SBR.

Caltex Racing’s Russell Ingall had a strong race, starting from eighth on the grid. He immediately moved his way up to seventh on the first lap and claimed another spot on lap 14, passing Winterbottom.

The Caltex Racing Falcon pitted for rear tyres on lap 28, rejoining the race in 12th position. Ingall made his compulsory fuel stop 10 laps later and began moving through the field from 16th position.

As the last of the pit stops unfolded, Ingall found himself in fourth position when Courtney rejoined the race just in front of him following his fuel stop.

The successful weekend sees Courtney in third place in the V8 Supercar Championship Series, with Ingall in fifth position.

The V8 Supercar Championship Series rolls on to Western Australia in three weeks time to race at Barbagallo Raceway on 23-25 March 2007.

Russell Ingall, car #9, Caltex Racing “It’s good to be back and out of the wilderness. It is where we should be.

“All the changes the team has made in the off-season have certainly had a positive impact.

“The vibe in the team this weekend was what it felt like when we won those three consecutive championships.

“James looks as though he is the Marcos replacement we hoped he would be and there is no doubt that we will be pushing each other all season.

“We had a few problems that we need to sort from yesterday’s first race and the boys managed to achieve all that.

“The pit stops were better and we only lost one spot and that was to James.

“I flat spotted a tyre early in the race and then had a major lock up coming in for my stop, but apart from that we had a relatively incident-free race.

“After this weekend I feel there is no reason why either of us cannot win the championship. ”

James Courtney, car #4, JELD-WEN Motorsport “We had a drama with the mapping of the engine getting off the line and it was also a problem coming out of the pits. The JELD-WEN Falcon wasn’t happy leaving the mark.

“We lost a heap of time coming off the start and also in the stops. It’s something that we will have to go away and work out and knock on the head.

“I was pushing eleven-tenths in the race because I lost so much time at the start and I locked the front right badly into turn nine and also into 14. It was like having a 50 cent piece on the front right corner for most of the race.

“I had to nurse it but continue to push hard so it was quite a tough race mentally.

“There really wasn’t much left at the end there, I had been pushing so hard.

“I had Russell behind me and I wasn’t sure whether he was friend or enemy! There are no team orders at SBR so they were happy for us to battle it out as long as we didn’t take each other out.

“To come away with third today and third in the championship, I really can’t complain. It’s a great start compared to 12 months ago and a great result for the team.

“If this is the result for a weekend where we had a few issues, I can’t wait to see the results when we have a really good one! ”

Ross Stone, Team Manager, Stone Brothers Racing “This has been a really satisfying weekend for SBR. It’s a good reward for Jimmy, myself and everyone on the team.

“Twelve months ago it was a hard initiation for James but what a recovery. James was polished all weekend.

“And Russell was really strong, his car was strong at the end of the race and he looked really good.

“It’s great to be leading the teams championship and have James in third and Russell in fifth. I believe that Clipsal is one of the hardest races on cars and drivers for the year so it’s a great start. ”

Leg 2 – Clipsal 500
1.  R Kelly
2.  T Kelly
3.  J Courtney
4.  R Ingall
5.  J Whincup
6.  S Johnson
7.  M Skaife
8.  S Richards
9.  W Davison
10.  G Tander

V8 Supercar Championship Series Points
1.  T Kelly 66pts
2.  R Kelly 58pts
3.  J Courtney 55pts
4.  J Whincup 45pts
5.  R Ingall 37pts
6.  S Johnson 31pts
7.  G Tander 30pts
8.  S Richards 24pts
9.  M Skaife 21pts
10.  M Winterbottom 20pts