Courtney looks to cure "cruel" Darwin

James Courtney's focus is on reversing the "cruel" results he's had at Hidden Valley this weekend, with his controversial comments about Prodrive far behind him.

The Holden Racing Team driver animatedly criticised the Ford team over the break to the SKYCITY Triple Crown, generating plenty of attention and discussion as to whether the Championship leading crew can maintain its form across a season.

Courtney won the title in 2010 with Dick Johnson Racing, but has not had the same results since shifting to the HRT in 2011. He currently sits fifth in the title race this year, after a resounding win at the season opening Clipsal 500.

And while others - such as Will Davison - have retorted the 34-year old should focus on his own results rather than talking down competitors, Courtney said he did not feel a shred of pressure to back up his comments and lift his performance.

"No one can put any more pressure on me than I put on myself," Courtney told v8supercars.com.au.

"I'm my toughest critic.

"Even if you win a lot of the time there's things that you can do better - so I'm not affected or worried, it's the last thing on my mind - I'm trying to stay on track and worry about that stuff."

He finished yesterday's practice sessions 11th and sixth, but hopes there is more to come, as his team utilised the opportunity to experiment during the two hour-long runs, which serve as testing time this year.

"Because of the five week break we had there's a lot of setup changes as well [as]the components we put on the car ... to evaluate things the engineers have come up with," Courtney explained.

"A lot of was about evaluating those changes, not necessarily going about car tuning - we'll focus on that [this] morning.

"It was more a testing day - testing components and items. It's been good, we've learnt some things that haven't been good, some things that have.

"Today is the day that we have to knuckle down and concentrate on the car speed."

While he has earned a pair of podiums at the Hidden Valley circuit, Courtney has had some hard luck at the Top End. He suffered an engine failure when running at the front in 2013 and last year earneda best finish of fifth on Sunday.

"It's been pretty cruel to me," he said of the Darwin track.

"I've yet to win here, but I've had the speed at times and been in a good position and things have failed and whatever.

"But in the end that's the beauty of the sport we're in, and winning feels so good because there's only one guy who can do it each day and you've got to get everything right.

"Haven't done that yet, so that's what we're hanging to do this weekend."

The V8 Supercars have a 15-minute practice session at 9.25am EST, before back-to-back qualifying and two races with the new tyre allocations today at the SKYCITY Triple Crown.

Click here for full broadcast details.