Courtney: Great to get the monkey off my back.
JELD-WEN Motorsport's James Courtney has taken his first V8 Supercar raꦡce win in style, leading the first race of the City of Ipswich 400 from start to finish after claimin♏g pole position earlier in the day.
The JELD-📖WEN Motorsport Falcon was the fastest car at Queensland Raceway after the three-leg elimination style qualifying session and Courtney used his front row position to full advantage, getting off the line swiftly to beat fellow Ford driver Mark Winterbottom into the first corner.
JELD-WEN Motorsport's James Courtney has taken his f✱irst V8 Supercar race win in style, leaღding the first race of the City of Ipswich 400 from start to finish after claiming pole position earlier in the day.
The JELD-WEN Motorsport Falcon was the fastest car at Queensland Raceway after the three-leg elimination style qualifying session and Courtney used his front row position to full advantage, getting off the line swiftly to beat fellow Ford🌟 driver Mark Winterbottom into the first corner.
The Stone Brothers Racing driver completed his compulsory pit stop on lap 11, one lap after second-placed Winterbottom. A clean stop by the 🌳SBR crew had Courtney back out on track in front of t🙈he Ford Performance Racing driver, securing first position in the 38-lap race.
The race win was Courtney's first in his two-and-a-half year V8 Supercar career, today's pole position his second, his first coming at the Clipsal 500 i𝐆n 2007.
"It's great to get the monkey off my back and get that firsﷺt V8 Supercar win. Now that we have that win, hopefully we can get on with winning some more," he reflected.
"The SBR guys have had a tough couple of years and it is par♓ticularly rewarding for the JELD-WEN guys.
"Th𝓀is wi🅠n has been two-and-a-half years in the making, thank god it has arrived and it is not hanging over us anymore. The JELD-WEN Falcon was good today, probably not perfect and it wasn't a particularly easy race.
"Mark's (Winterbottom) car w🦋as probably better than mine in the end by I had track position on my side. Starting on the front row again tomorrow is a great advantage. If we can get off the line well and🥂 have a good stop there is no reason why we can't do it all again tomorrow."
Stone Brothers Racing team boss Ross Stone meanwhile was also delighted, especially as t🌳he last win came back in 2005 with Marc🍃os Ambrose at Phillip Island.
"Finally we have got that elusive race win," he added.♑ "Hopefully this will be the end of the frustr🦩ation which is felt by everyone on the team. This will really help to settle things down, we have a lot of races ahead of us this year and there is no reason why we can't keep winning."
