'Box remains unticked': Courtney hell-bent on winning Bathurst
James Courtney reiterates desire to win Bathurst 1000
2010 Supercars champion signed co-drive deal with Team 18
Courtney has four Bathurst podiums in 20 starts
Having ticked the championship box, James Courtney remains set on winning the Bathurst 1000.
It marks a reunion with Charlie Schwerkolt and Adrian Burgess, who along with Courtney, won the 2010 Supercars championship with Dick Johnson Racing.
A veteran with over 600 race starts and 60 podiums, one box remains unticked from Courtney’s CV — a Bathurst win.
Courtney has come close, reeling off three consecutive podiums for Stone Brothers Racing between 2006 and 2008, before adding a fourth podium in 2019 with Walkinshaw Andretti United.
For all of his successes, Courtney has never taken the Bathurst 1000 by the scruff of the neck. He hasn’t started from the front row, nor has he held a commanding lead in the race.
Notably, Courtney led the opening stint in the 2008 race, before fading to third. In the years since, he continued to fall short of the ultimate prize.
Now armed with the chance to partner either Anton De Pasquale or 2017 winner David Reynolds, Courtney wants to make his chance count, having refused to go "cold turkey" and giving racing away altogether.
“It is the box that remains unticked. It is the holy grail of our sport and at the end of the day there was no way I could turn down an opportunity to continue in that ultimate quest.”
Team owner Schwerkolt believes Courtney’s signing is proof of the team’s ambition to be a race winner.
Courtney is the latest high-profile signing by Team 18, which inked a wildcard deal with seven-time Bathurst winner Craig Lowndes earlier this year.
“Securing someone of his calibre shows our intent as a team and where we want to go, we’re here to win races and to proudly represent Chevrolet as the homologation partner moving forward. It’s our job to prepare a package that can go out there and get the job done,” Schwerkolt said.
“To reunite with James after the success we shared in 2010 is something really special. We’ve stayed great friends since that championship year, and to now have him join what we’ve built at Team 18 for the next chapter of his career feels like things have come full circle.
“Now comes the fun part, deciding who he goes with! Between James and Lee [Holdsworth] as our co-drivers, and Anton and Dave as our main drivers, we’ve got one of the strongest four-driver line-ups in pit lane to take on the Great Race next year.”
