JC SAYS

Catching and eating fresh fish during an off-shore boating trip was a
highlight of my visit to North Queensland last week.

The fish tasted great, but not as good as the champagne I drank from the
top of the podium in Townsville on Sunday afternoon.

Winning the second race of the inaugural Townville 400 was memorable.

It was the first win in this year's V8 Supercar Championship for myself
and Jim Beam Racing.

When I stood on the podium, with Jamie Whincup and Garth Tander, I felt
elated for everyone in our team and it was very satisfying to see the
smiles on their faces.

I also felt relieved because the previous five events this year had been
tough, starting with my crash in the warm-up before the second race in
the season-opener in Adelaide.

This was followed by a promising second in race two in Hamilton in New
Zealand, but then there was another setback when I crashed after contact
with a 'backmarker' at Symmons Plains in Tasmania.

My win in Townsville completed a full circle of the highs and lows in
motorsport, and was a reward for the work JBR has put into developing
and repairing my car this year, plus the support from team sponsors and
my personal sponsors JELD-WEN.

I have to thank my team for a perfect second pit-stop on the way to my
win in Townsville, because they got me back out on track ahead of Jamie
(Whincup) and that's the way things stayed to the finish.

Momentum is important in motor racing, and I think JBR can only get
better.

We have proved we can win races against anyone when our car set-up is
good, the driver is on his game, the strategy and pit-stops are spot on,
and we stay clear of incidents.

My team-mate Steve Johnson is having a very consistent season, reflected
by fifth place in the championship, so now hopefully both our FG Falcons
will be running near the front every race.

The only 'downside' for me in Townsville was an engine failure which put
me out of the first race after I led the early laps. I knew there was a
problem on the warm-up lap.

The Townsville event proved a huge success, attracting more than 160,000
people over three days, and is a welcome addition to our championship.

I travelled to North Queensland on the Monday before the event and went
straight to Ingham, located 110km north of Townsville, and met up with
Russell Ingall for an offshore fishing trip the next day.

Television presenters Scott Hillier and Dean Miller and a film crew from
the Channel 7 programs "Queensland Weekender" and "Creek To Coast"
joined us and they are going to make a story about the trip.

We were in a 24-foot Kevlar catamaran and travelled about one-and-a-half
hours off the Cardwell coast.

During the day we caught various fish, including Sweetlip, Spanish
Mackerel, Giant Trevalley, and Cobia. It was the best fishing trip I've
been on, with a lot of laughs. Some of the fish were cooked straight
after they were reeled in from the ocean, and they tasted great because
they were so fresh.

The next day I made an in-store appearance for Electric Visual, one of
our team sponsors, in Townsville.

On Thursday we had a V8 Supercars driver lunch at the casino, and later
I walked around the track with my engineer Scott Sinclair and JBR
Sporting Director Adrian Burgess. During these pre-race inspections we
look for things like bumps in the road, the kerbs, and track surface
changes.

The track inspection was more important than usual because this was a
new circuit.

It was obvious a lot of planning, earthworks, and construction had been
done getting the race precinct completed. Pre-event work included
building the 2.8km track, plus 16 grandstands, and spectator mounds.

The track is partly located in open parklands, and reminded me more of
the Albert Park layout in Melbourne, compared to the Gold Coast street
circuit which is almost completely surrounded by high-rise buildings.

There was plenty of room for spectators around the Townsville circuit,
but the V8 Supercar paddock was incredibly busy and congested. The
crowds were even bigger than anticipated.

My FG Falcon felt comfortable from the first of the three practice
sessions on Friday. The car was competitive throughout the event.

After my win on Sunday, the team celebrated that night as a team by
going to a local restaurant for a meal and a few drinks. Then I returned
home to the Gold Coast on Monday.

Hopefully I can be successful in Townsville again next year, but in the
short-term I'm keen to do well in our next event at Sandown in Victoria
from July 31-August 2. I finished on the podium at Sandown in 2008.

Keep smiling.

JC

TOWNSVILLE RESULTS - JAMES COURTNEY
EVENT 6, V8 Supercar Championship, (July 10-12)

Qualifying - Race 1: 1st
Top 10 Shoot Out - Race 1: 2nd
Race 1 Result: did not finish
Qualifying - Race 2: 4th
Race 2 Result: 1st

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS (after event 6): Jamie Whincup (Ford) 1,560; Will
Davison (Holden) 1,386; Garth Tander (Holden) 1,212; Craig Lowndes
(Ford) 1,110; Steven Johnson (Ford) 1,050; Lee Holdsworth (Holden) 993;
Mark Winterbottom (Ford) 957; Rick Kelly (Holden) 903; Russell Ingall
(Holden) 830; Michael Caruso (Holden) 828; Fabian Coulthard (Ford) 828.
Other: James Courtney (Ford) 698.