It's 2010 all over again for Courtney

The mastermind behind James Courtney against-the-odds 2010 V8 Supercars drivers' championship win says the lessons learned that year must be employed by the Holden Racing Team if he is to repeat that success in 2015.

Courtney heads into this weekend's Tyrepower Tasmania SuperSprint on top of the points table for the first time since he wrapped up the 2010 title at Homebush for Dick Johnson Racing.

Back then Englishman Adrian Burgess was calling the shots at DJR and is now in his second season as managing director of Walkinshaw Racing, which encompasses HRT, the Supercheap Auto Racing entry of Tim Slade and Charlie Schwerkolt's customer Holden Commodore VF for Lee Holdsworth.

In 2010 Courtney defeated perennial champ Jamie Whincup in an epic battle.

In a superbly consistent season he finished every race, won five times and finished outside the top 10 only five times.

"One thing James and I learned in 2010 is that if you want to be there at the end then you have to maximise what you have got on any given day," Burgess told v8supercars.com.au. "If it's only good enough for sixth then be sixth. But if it's good enough to win then win.

"And if we do that and we keep banking the points and not making any stupid decisions - whether it's trying to railroad development or whether it's trying to take a risk to be fourth instead of fifth on the last lap and we waste points - then we will be there at the end.

"We just have to play it smart and keep pushing hard. We are working very hard still and that will carry on."

Burgess has been pushing through massive technical and structural changes at Walkinshaw Racing since he took over, as the operation played catch-up in terms of competitiveness against fellow factory Holden squad, Triple Eight Race Engineering (from where Burgess was controversially poached by WR owner Ryan Walkinshaw in mid-2013).

The line from Burgess, Courtney and the team this year has been the rebuild is over and HRT is now racing for the championship.

There is no doubt Burgess and the whole team took great encouragement from Courtney's win in Sunday's 250km race at the Clipsal 500, in which he qualified on pole and then drove away from Whincup. Late in the race he held off Shane van Gisbergen in another T8 Commodore, despite inferior tyre quality. Another boost was Garth Tander's drive from seventh on the grid to a strong third place in the other HRT Commodore.

While Courtney also won in the 250km race at the Clipsal in 2014, there was an element of good fortune to that result because of issues for others including Whincup.

"We still have things that we know we can improve," Burgess said. "But our package at the moment isn't bad. We were quick in Adelaide from our own pace.

"Last year we won there but really because we benefitted from other things outside our influence. This year we won there on our own pace. We drove away from the people you want to drive away from.

"And then it was our own strategy that got us and kept us our track position, but made life harder for us in terms of the tyres on the car to fight Gizzy. But you could see James still had enough of a car to hold him off. So that was a sign the car is better."

Courtney goes to the Symmons Plains bullring riding on the back of his strong performance behind the dominant Pepsi Max Ford Falcon FG Xs at the F1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix, where he posted a third and three fourths.

He also finished second on Saturday and third in the Sunday 200km race at Symmons Plains 12 months ago, the latter result an early indicator of HRT's year-long strategy of making sure it posted strong finishes in the races that paid the most points.

"You need horsepower, you have got to have a balanced car for the quick lefts back past the pits and good braking and drive out of the hairpin," Burgess said when asked what attributes a competitive V8 Supercar required at Symmons Plains.

"We will be there, we were decent there last year and we know what we have done to the car between then and now and we are confident that they will help us next week. Whether it's enough to put us at the front or third or fourth, who knows.

"But we will be going there confident," he added. "We will be going there trying to win races and carry on what we are doing and build ourselves ready to try and challenge for the championship at the end of the year."

Stay tuned to FOX SPORTS from Friday to Sunday for live coverage of the Tyrepower Tasmania SuperSprint.Fans can also follow the action on Ten and One with highlights packages each day.

Click here for the TV schedule, and here to buy tickets to the March 27-29 Championship event in Tasmania.