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Mobil 1 HSV parks ‘possessed’ chassis

17 May 2017
Courtney swaps cars after Barbagallo woes
2 mins by James Pavey
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Mobil 1 HSV Racing has pressed another spare chassis into service for the Winton SuperSprint following James Courtney’s horror run at Barbagallo.

The move comes amid major changes that saw the sacking of high-profile team principal Adrian Burgess last week.

With his primary car, WR 022, heavily damaged at Symmons Plains, Courtney raced WR 021 at Phillip Island and Barbagallo.

Famously involved in Warren Luff's 2014 Bathurst crash, WR 021 had been parked midway through last year following claims from Garth Tander that it reacted unpredictably to set-up changes.

Although it underwent another complete rebuild over the 2016/17 off-season, Courtney was adamant that it was contributing to the poor performance at Barbagallo.

He quipped on the television coverage that “maybe Garth was right and maybe that car is possessed. Maybe someone here can come and perform an exorcism on it.”

The team has subsequently prepared another spare, chassis WR 020, in the tight turnaround ahead of Winton as it bids to rescue its season.

 

Courtney had previously raced WR 020 in 2014 and 2015 before moving into WR 022 for the start of last year.

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As previously reported, Walkinshaw’s GT team manager Mathew Nilsson has taken over Burgess’ duties while a full-time replacement is sourced.

Race engineers Terry Kerr and Alex Somerset will continue to work with James Courtney and Scott Pye respectively.

Nilsson has stressed the importance of doing the basics right this weekend as part of the squad’s rebuild.

“It will be great to get back on track this weekend, getting back to racing,” he said. 

“For us, it’s a back to basics approach. We must do the basics right, and do them well.

“We know this isn’t going to be an overnight fix, but it’s important for us to move forward, and start making progression up the field with some strong race results.

“We have complete faith in the team we have here, and we know they are going to give everything they have to regain that speed.

“Everyone is certainly in this together with the same goals in mind."

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