Walkinshaw backs 'determined' Courtney

Holden Racing Team boss Ryan Walkinshaw has backed James Courtney and his outspoken, aggressive approach to this year's V8 Supercars Championship.

Courtney has been a headliner on and off the track in 2015 after his explosive comments about rival squad Prodrive Racing and his 'not here to make friends' attitude.

While he had success on the Sunday at the Clipsal 500 and earned ARMOR ALL Pole Position at the last round in Darwin, Courtney's achievements have recently been overshadowed by costly incidents that saw him take out his teammates, with Garth Tander involved at the last two rounds.

While Walkinshaw said once was an incident and twice was an issue with the "stupid" moves, the team boss doesn't have a problem with Courtney's take no prisoners approach. Like his driver - the 2010 V8 Supercars Champion - Walkinshaw is desperate to see the #1 back on the side of an HRT Commodore.

"It's a bit of determination, focus and grit that we haven't seen from James for a couple of years," Walkinshaw told v8supercars.com.au.

"He wants to be a Champion and you've got to make sure you don't go out there trying to make friends. Jamie Whincup isn't exactly the most popular guy in the sport, but he's gone out there and won a lot of Championships.

"I quite like the fact that he's [Courtney] determined and a bit pissed off with everyone. It's nice he's got a bit of an aggressive mentality.

"And as long as he can use that to his advantage and perform and use it as a catalyst to go and win races, then fantastic."

Courtney dropped out of the top five to sixth in the Championship standings at Darwin, now 230 points away from leader Mark Winterbottom. A driver can only earn a maximum 300 points across a race meeting, and Courtney got slugged a 25 point penalty after the incident that took out Tander in Darwinonce it was reviewed by the stewards.

Heading next to the July 10-12 Castrol EDGE Townsville 400, Walkinshaw takes solace in the team's past performances at the track and in the latter part of the season, which is traditionally HRT's stronger half.

And clearly he has the same feelings about his rivals as Courtney.

"Prodrive have done well so far this season, but they've also got a very good habit of shooting themselves in the foot - so there's a bit of hope that will happen at some point throughout the next few events," Walkinshaw said.

The last two years at the Castrol EDGE Townsville 400 have produced two one-two finishes for HRT, with Tander leading Courtney home in the second Saturday race last year and a thrilling Sunday battle in 2013.

The street circuits suit the Walkinshaw Commodores - Tander in particular has done well over the years, having recorded the second highest number of wins there (three) behind Jamie Whincup (seven) with Courtney also having recorded one of his own in 2009 with Dick Johnson Racing.

"We'll go to Townsville - like we do every single round - we'll go there with the expectation ... [of a] win and we'll do everything we can to accomplish that," Walkinshaw said simply.

"The rest of the season will take care of itself as long as we focus on it one race at a time and make sure we do everything we can to fix any issues we may have with the car.

"But the team's good, the drivers are solid and we've got all the ingredients to have a car that can push for the Championship - we've just got to do better and be more consistent at every round rather than just being good at some."

While Darwin looked disastrous with the focus on the driver tangle on Saturday, Courtney finished sixth and seventh in the following races - not the worst results for a 'bad' weekend.

"We had a bad run at Darwin but it was a big improvement on what was a totally unacceptable performance at Winton," Walkinshaw said.

"We just didn't capitalise on the speed and that was part of the problem at Darwin - the car wasn't the fastest car on track consistently, but it was certainly up there.

"Unfortunately we did a fair few things to shoot ourselves in the foot and we need to make sure we don't do that in the future - and a few other guys do for the rest of the year."

Tune in tonight at 7.30pm EST for Inside Supercars on FOX SPORTS 506, with Courtney and Jason Bright appearing on the panel.