Courtney’s Fairytale V8 Supercar Return

James Courtney
James Courtney

It was a win for the ages today at the Castrol Gold Coast 600, as the Holden Racing Team's James Courtney and Jack Perkins took victory on the streets of Surfers Paradise.

Courtney – racing for the first time in over two months after receiving shocking injuries in a freak helicopter accident – was extremely emotional following the win.

"I knew it was going to be tough, and I didn't know how it was all going to hold up," Courtney said of returning from five broken ribs and a punctured lung.

"It shows how determined we are as a team, and me as a person. Nothing is going to hold me back from doing what I want to do. I'm willing to fight to the end.

"There's no point getting upset and making excuses. I just put my head down and got on with it."

Courtney's teammate – and his replacement for the last two months – Jack Perkins was ecstatic after the victory, his first in V8 Supercars.

"I'm just thrilled," Perkins said. "I feel like I worked pretty hard for this over my journey."

"Since I started in go-karts I would have written about 4,000 sponsorship proposals and chipped away at it, so to win a race with HRT, it doesn't get any better than that."

IndyCar driver Sebastien Bourdais
IndyCar driver Sebastien Bourdais

"There were many times there where I thought it would never happen. I'm pretty happy to get a surfboard, I'm going to see if that thing floats tonight!"

Fellow HRT racers Garth Tander and Warren Luff, sealed the Pirtek Enduro Cup with third place in today's 102-lap run.

"It's important to be consistent and we did that over the course of the three enduro weekends," said Tander. "I'm really happy to get that one."

"Frosty (Mark Winterbottom) actually had a pretty good points lead on us in the Enduro Cup coming in here, and we saw yesterday how quickly that can turn around."

Winterbottom's Championship lead has taken a big hit this weekend, with his margin to Craig Lowndes dropping from 399 to 258 points at the end of the weekend.

Winterbottom believes this weekend has put them under "unwanted and unneeded pressure".

"It's definitely frustrating but I don't feel [pressure] as a driver, we just have to fix some other areas."

V8 Supercars now heads to New Zealand in a fortnight for the ITM 500 Auckland, November 6-8.

Results

Pos Driver Entry / Team St Laps Race Time
1 22 James Courtney and Jack Perkins Holden Racing Team 11 102 2h 14:20.4260
2 15 Rick Kelly and David Russell Nissan Motorsport 14 102 2h 14:22.4185
3 2 Garth Tander and Warren Luff Holden Racing Team 7 102 2h 14:26.1030
4 888 Craig Lowndes and Steve Richards Red Bull Racing Australia 2 102 2h 14:31.6846
5 97 Shane van Gisbergen and Jonathon Webb Team Darrell Lea STIX 3 102 2h 14:34.9490
6 33 Scott McLaughlin and Alexandre Premat Wilson Security Racing GRM 1 102 2h 14:35.5684
7 1 Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell Red Bull Racing Australia 4 102 2h 14:36.0590
8 99 James Moffat and Taz Douglas Nissan Motorsport 12 102 2h 14:36.2950
9 55 David Reynolds and Dean Canto The Bottle-O Racing Team 9 102 2h 14:39.1020
10 23 Michael Caruso and Dean Fiore Nissan Motorsport 24 102 2h 14:41.8647
11 5 Mark Winterbottom and Steve Owen Pepsi Max Crew 5 102 2h 14:42.9336
12 47 Tim Slade and Tony D'Alberto Supercheap Auto Racing 8 102 2h 14:49.8877
13 14 Fabian Coulthard and Luke Youlden Freightliner Racing 16 102 2h 14:50.3804
14 18 Lee Holdsworth and Sébastien Bourdais Preston Hire Racing 10 102 2h 14:50.7840
15 222 Nick Percat and Oliver Gavin Repair Management Australia Racing 15 102 2h 14:52.9430
16 9 Will Davison and Alex Davison Erebus Motorsport V8 17 102 2h 15:0.5317
17 7 Todd Kelly and Alex Buncombe Nissan Motorsport 19 102 2h 15:10.4310
18 111 Andre Heimgartner and Ant Pedersen Super Black Racing 21 102 2h 15:12.9556
19 6 Cameron Waters and Russell Ingall Pepsi Max Crew 23 102 2h 15:16.3535
20 21 Dale Wood and Macauley Jones GB Galvanizing Racing 25 102 2h 15:16.6143
21 17 Scott Pye and Marcos Ambrose DJR Team Penske 6 102 2h 15:31.1187
22 3 Tim Blanchard and Karl Reindler Team Cooldrive 22 101 2h 14:51.9746
23 8 Jason Bright and Andrew Jones Team BOC 13 97 2h 14:46.5576
DNF 34 Chris Pither Wilson Security Racing GRM 20 6 07:41.0451
EXC 4 Ash Walsh and Jack Le Brocq Erebus Motorsport V8 18 0