JELD-WEN Motorsport’s James Courtney completed an amazing drive from 18th to third at a wet Winton Motor Raceway today only to be penalised post-race for passing under yellow, relegating him to 17th position.
In what turned out to be a rollercoaster day for SBR, Courtney started today’s 40-lap race from position 18 on the grid. A slick start saw him move quickly up the order to 11th by lap six.
The JELD-WEN Motorsport driver continued to climb through the field into eighth position before he took on four slick tyres in his compulsory pit stop on lap 20.
Three laps after rejoining the race Courtney was turned around by Paul Dumbrell, the incident dropping him to 26th position.
Climbing back onto the track, Courtney began his charge through the field, moving to seventh position before the safety car was deployed on lap 33.
With all six cars in front of him on wet weather tyres, Courtney made his move at the restart on lap 37, moving to fourth within two laps and passing Garth Tander on the final lap to claim third position.
However Courtney was to go unrewarded for his gutsy drive, with Stewards applying a 27-second penalty after the race for passing Tander under yellow in the final corner. The penalty dropped Courtney to 17th position, where he will start race two tomorrow.
Caltex Racing’s Russell Ingall also had a mixed day, starting race one from the rear of the grid after being excluded from qualifying for missing the weigh scales.
Ingall had a blinder of a start to the race, climbing six spots to 25th after the first lap. The Caltex Racing driver made his way to 14th by lap eight before getting caught up in an incident with Dumbrell which resulted in a broken steering arm on the Caltex Racing Falcon.
Ingall limped into the pits where the Caltex Racing crew quickly repaired the SBR Falcon. Ingall completed a further five laps late in the race to check the repairs before retiring.
In the Fujitsu C8 Supercar Series, SBR’s Jonathon Webb made a good start to the day, qualifying in fourth position for race one.
From fourth on the grid, Webb had a slow start but recovered to run in seventh position for the first part of the 14-lap race.
Webb’s fortunes changed however on lap nine when he was caught out by oil at turn 11. Webb slipped off the track and became bogged in the gravel trap.
Webb continued the race after being pulled out by officials but had to settle for 25th position.
Russell Ingall, car #9, Caltex Racing
“The rain gave us a bit of an opportunity today. I had a blinder of a start and things looked pretty good.
“But early in the race I got caught up in an incident with Dumbrell and got knocked off the track. It damaged the steering arm and it was all over for us.
“Winton doesn’t seem to be a happy hunting ground for us. ”
James Courtney, car #4, JELD-WEN Motorsport
“I was hoping for the rain today and we got it. I thought it might give us a good chance to make up some ground.
“We were able to do that. We held out on our pit stop to put on slicks and it paid off in the last five laps where I was able to get up to third at the line.
“But it wasn’t to be; I couldn’t see the yellow at turn 11 and made what I thought was a good pass on Tander in the last corner.
“It’s pretty disappointing to drive that hard and not get the result. ”
Jonathon Webb, car #94, Stone Brothers Racing
“We had a good run in qualifying; we had a dry session and we made some big improvements on yesterday.
“To qualify fourth and only two-tenths off pole was our best qualifying result by far.
“Unfortunately I had a slow start in the race and struggled with car set up early. We then got caught up in someone’s oil into turn 11 and fell off the circuit along with about six other cars.
“We got bogged in the sand and ended up three laps down by the time I got pulled out.
“Still, I’m looking forward to tomorrow; there’s plenty of room for improvement. ”
Ross Stone, Team Manager, Stone Brothers Racing
“James’ engineer Wes McDougall made a brave call to put on slicks on a drying track. It took a while to get heat into the tyres but it paid off and James had a terrific drive; the whole team was really impressive.
In the end, James got penalised which was frustrating. He genuinely couldn’t see the stationary yellow in difficult conditions and he didn’t get the reward that he deserved today.
“Russell had good speed in the wet and had a fantastic start. It was another disappointment to see him get caught up in someone else’s incident.
“It was a pretty tough day of racing for all today. ”
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