'Nothing seemed to go right' for Courtney

James Courtney has rued a weekend of missed opportunities at Albert Park.

Courtney’s milestone weekend reaped finishes of 20th, ninth, ninth and 22nd.

It was a jarring return considering the speed of Courtney’s #5 FLEX Mustang.

Courtney was second in Practice 2, but tyre woes in Race 6 dropped him from 10th to 20th.

Come Saturday, and Courtney was in the hunt for a podium, only to be spun out of third place by Chaz Mostert at the final corner.

The 2010 champion was forced to pit twice in Sunday’s race after a flat-spotted tyre failed with five laps remaining.

In all, 17th overall for the weekend was a bitter pill to swallow.

“It was a pretty tough one,” said Courtney, who celebrated 500 races on the Friday.

“Straight from the start the clutch issue we thought we fixed last night came back, so I lost a heap of spots off the start, and some more time at the first stop.

"Then later on I had a big lock up at Turn 11 that flat spotted a tyre, and eventually the tyre started to delaminate from the damage so we had to stop again.

"It’s really frustrating, just a weekend where nothing seemed to go right, which after the speed we had in qualifying it’s disappointing to come away with nothing to show for it.”

Tickford endured a weekend bereft of highlights, with Cam Waters dropping to seventh in the points.

Thomas Randle’s career-best qualifying ended in DNF, with Waters penalised in two separate races.

Jake Kostecki, who began the weekend in the Turn 5 barriers, managed to make slight improvements.

However, his race efforts were hampered by low grid slots.

“The positive thing is I think we improved the car quite a bit from the start of the weekend,” Kostecki said.

"I definitely felt more confident in the car as we went. It probably went a little unnoticed after we qualified so poorly.

"I think we have a little momentum out of this weekend which is good.

"Hopefully we can keep that rolling into Perth in a few weeks, obviously being my home race I’d love to put on some good runs there.”