Courtney explains Slade clash
James Courtney has bemoaned the four-into-one battle that left he and Tim Slade with battle scars.
Courtney collided with Slade at the first corner after James Golding and Nick Percat went down the inside.
Slade slid across the front of Courtney’s car at over 160km/h through Turn 1.
Courtney carried on before bowling a wide at Turn 8.
Slade, meanwhile, suffered damage, nosed into the Turn 4 exit barriers and suffered his first DNF of 2022.
No further action was taken over the incident, with stewards deeming no driver wholly or predominantly to blame.
Courtney was later implicated in a bizarre pit lane melee which saw teammate Jake Kostecki lose a wheel.
Slade is set sideways
Kostecki was released into the path of Courtney, and lost a rear wheel in the process.
Stewards pinged the #55/#56 Tickford crew 30 teams’ championship points and fined the team $1500.
“Today was pretty crazy,” Courtney said.
"I’m far more used to being the bread than the meat in the sandwich.
“It was pretty wild to be caught up in two of those incidents.
"Lap 1 was fairly clear cut, four cars into Turn 1 will almost never work and unfortunately Sladey and I copped the worst of it.
"I had a mad tyre rub but eventually it cleared and we pressed on at the back.
“The tyre was pretty second-hand so we made the call to pit on lap 6.”
Courtney was classified 18th, two positions behind Thomas Randle and three ahead of Kostecki.
Cam Waters’ podium finish was the only bright spot for Tickford.
On the pit lane drama, Courtney added: "I saw Jake was in for his stop and he dropped right as I was approaching.
"I pulled up to let him get out and Brodie [Kostecki] drilled me from behind.
"It was a clunky old exchange but we got back out and continued on and basically just survived to the end.
“Certainly not the result we wanted after qualifying in the 10, but we did find some speed in the car today which was positive.
“Hopefully we can put it all together tomorrow.”
