How Courtney claimed the greatest night race victory

Since the championship’s inception in 1960, just 12 of 1074 races have been held under lights.

As such, only nine drivers have won floodlit championship races.

Only four will feature at this month’s night event at Sydney Motorsport Park, which will host four night races across four events in November.

One of them, James Courtney, can lay claim to recording the most unlikely and thrilling night race victory.

When Courtney rolls out in Sydney, it will have been over five years since his most recent race win, taken for the Holden Racing Team on the Adelaide streets.

A decade has passed since Courtney won the night race thriller in Abu Dhabi, which played host to his maiden full-time start for HRT.

Courtney beat Jamie Whincup to the 2010 title following a tense showdown at the Sydney Olympic Park finale.

He shifted to HRT alongside Garth Tander, returning to the team which handed him his series debut in the 2005 enduros.

Come Abu Dhabi, and night racing returned for just the fourth time in championship history.

Peter Brock won the first ever night race at Calder Park in 1980, before Craig Lowndes won in Sydney in 1996.

Wayne Gardner and Glenn Seton shared the floodlit wins at Calder in 1997, before Whincup opened his Holden account with Triple Eight at the Yas Marina Circuit in 2010.

Whincup’s Abu Dhabi sweep in 2010 made the biggest headlines, but waiting in the wings was Courtney, who scored finishes of fourth and sixth.

Whincup won the first Abu Dhabi race in 2011 in a canter - but Courtney’s title defence couldn’t have started worse.

As rival Whincup went on to win Race 1, Courtney slumped to 26th following an early clash with Brad Jones Racing’s Jason Bargwanna.

It was an embarrassing Saturday for Courtney

Later, he was hit with a subsequent 50-point penalty for the incident.

With 26th place offering just 27 points, Courtney arrived on Sunday on minus 23 points.

Whincup, eyeing a fourth straight win at the Yas Marina Circuit, launched from pole for Race 2.

Courtney vaulted from fifth, but just seconds into the race, teammate Tander was out of the running.

A Tony D’Alberto divebomb saw Tim Slade turned in front of Tander, who had nowhere to go.

D’Alberto, Slade and Tander were out on the spot, with Todd Kelly and Shane van Gisbergen also implicated.

The Safety Car was called and remained out for some time due to the lengthy clean-up.

Whincup leads into Turn 1

Whincup pitted under yellow along with Mark Winterbottom, who claimed the lead having moved into second after overtaking Lowndes off the line.

Winterbottom led at the first restart, but only for a few seconds before he bowled a wide at the final corner.

Whincup had to chase the off-sequence Steven Johnson for some laps, having attempted to redress to Winterbottom.

Replays showed Winterbottom had indeed run off track, but Whincup had an overlap before the control line.

Jason Bright and Courtney were fourth and fifth in the queue on the restart, with the Safety Car called for a second time on lap 20.

Lowndes had attempted an overtake on Alex Davison, only to careen into the side of Russell Ingall.

Having pitted during both Safety Car periods, Courtney had seized track position.

Bright emerged as Courtney's primary challenger

However, fuel mileage remained a concern for the #1 Toll HRT Commodore.

Bright was seventh in the queue when the race restarted on lap 26, but was the safest on fuel.

Winterbottom was taken out of contention after a late dive into pit lane saw the #5 Falcon slapped with a drive-through penalty for crossing the merging line.

By lap 39, Bright had mowed his way through the traffic and was on Courtney’s bumper.

The reigning champion was in trouble; with five laps remaining, Courtney was forced into fuel-save mode.

Bright, however, had no such problems and continued to push Courtney.

On lap 40, Bright made two overtake attempts. He ran deep on the first attempt, but claimed the lead on the second.

P1 for the driver of #1

Suddenly, Brad Jones Racing was in the box seat to record its first race win.

Critically, Courtney stayed with Bright, who was unable to create a gap.

The two ran line astern for the first corners on lap 41, Bright running shallower lines to keep Courtney behind.

From nowhere, Courtney surprised Bright with a dive at the final corner. Bright held the ideal line into Turn 1, but another shallow line allowed Courtney to pounce.

This time, Courtney regained the lead and held sway in the final two laps to claim victory by just 0.607s.

Bright and BJR fell short, but the two would combine to an historic win in Perth just three months later.

However, smart racecraft and inch-perfect strategy had won the day in Abu Dhabi for Courtney and HRT.

Courtney took the #1 to HRT and won at his first attempt

Somehow, Courtney had survived 22 laps on a tank of fuel. When he returned to the lane after the race, the car had less than 300 millilitres of fuel left in the tank.

"I’d say it’s probably my best win, especially with all the stuff over the off-season, with all the hype and build up," he said after the race.

"And then after yesterday, it was a credit to the team, Scotty [Sinclair] my engineer and everyone pulling together and having the belief in each other.

"We had all of the ingredients, we just needed a bit of a change around. It was definitely a fantastic effort.

"It was all about managing the fuel. We knew it would be tight so we were taking very easy with everything. We managed to save enough and finish off.

"I was halfway down the straight before I even got full throttle for about the last 15 laps.

"I saw Brighty coming and he wanted to race, which I didn’t really want to do because I had no fuel to play with.”

Party time for Courtney and HRT

Bright, who was safe on fuel and was armed with a quick car, thought he had Courtney covered.

"I thought we had James," Bright said.

"I had to do a fair bit to catch him, and then when I got in front, I didn't have the drive left to keep him at bay."

Fabian Coulthard held third late on, but unlike Courtney, he was forced to pit for a top-up.

David Reynolds took a career-best fourth for Kelly Racing, having also survived a similar fuel strategy to Courtney.

Whincup passed Reynolds late on for third. It would be Whincup's only defeat in seven races at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Michael Caruso and Tekno Autosports' Jonathon Webb completed a top-six Holden sweep.