Freak problem that brought GC600 star undone
James Courtney has been left to wonder what could have been at the Gold Coast 600 after being undone by a door problem.
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JAMES Courtney has been left to wonder what could have been at the Gold Coast 600 after being undone by a door problem.
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The Hope Island resident and Walkinshaw Andretti United driver qualified in sixth and had obvious pace throughout the race, posting the fastest lap time (1:11.2911) of the 102 lap race on his way to scrambling a ninth place finish.
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But Courtney was forced to pit on lap 37 after being given a mechanical black flag after his door wouldn’t shut, flying like a flag throughout the track.
It was taped up but the extra pit stop cost him positions and hurt the team’s fuel strategy.
“It’s frustrating. We had really good car speed and pushed like crazy and had to do an extra stop on everyone,” Courtney said.
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“To still come home in ninth was pretty good. We had to save fuel at the end there because we had to stop so early.
“(Co-driver) Jack (Perkins) did a cracking job all weekend so we will forget this weekend and go to Sandown.”
Perkins said it was a disappointing finish but was buoyed by the knowledge they had a quick car.
“The whole team had been quick all weekend but it’s just disappointing not to get a podium result to repay the faith,” Perkins said.
“All the team did a great job. If it wasn’t for a few little things over the weekend we would have had better results. The encouraging thing is we have good car speed so we look forward to Sandown.”