JC SAYS

The 500km endurance event at Phillip Island last weekend produced many
positive outcomes for both the Jim Beam Racing team and myself.

Steve Johnson and I finished fourth, which was a satisfactory result in
our first race together as endurance team-mates.

We both scored 215 championship points at Phillip Island, which lifted
me up to seventh position in the series after nine of the 14 events.

Considering I was 20th in the championship after four events, I'm very
pleased with my improved results since then.

Steve and I went into the Phillip Island event aiming to win, or finish
on the podium.

Although we didn't quite earn any free bottles of champagne, our result
was still an encouraging preview for JBR's tilt at the biggest race of
the season, the Bathurst 1000 (October 8-11).

We had no problems with pit-stops, driver changes, tyre wear, or
reliability with our FG Falcon at Phillip Island.

It is worth noting there were less than 14-second covering the top four
cars after the 113 laps of the 4.5km circuit.

This indicates Steve and I should be in the mix of genuine contenders at
Bathurst, along with the three cars that finished ahead of us at Phillip
Island - the Holden Racing Team Commodore driven by Garth Tander and
Will Davison, Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes in the Team Vodafone
Falcon, and Mark Winterbottom and Steven Richards from Ford Performance
Racing.

You can never predict the outcome at Bathurst, or any endurance race
because there are so many variables, but what happened at Phillip Island
has left everyone in our team with measured confidence.

Steve and I are driving in the endurance events in the No 17 JBR Falcon
he usually races in the championship.

Our team's No 18 Falcon, which I usually race, is being driven by Warren
Luff and Jonathan Webb, who did an excellent job to finish sixth at
Phillip Island.

Mechanically the two cars feel the same. The main difference is the
seating position because Steve is taller than me. I'm using a seat
insert during my stints in the car.

At this stage our team is planning a test at Queensland Raceway later
this month to fine-tune preparations for Bathurst.

We practice pitstops and driver changes regularly at these test
sessions, as well as driving laps to assess performance, fuel economy,
and other things.

The Phillip Island event was incident-free for me, which is perfect
before Bathurst.

I finished fourth in qualifying, and fourth again in the 13-lap
qualifying race.

Steve started the main race fifth on the grid. He drove the opening 51
laps in a double-stint and was third when we made our driver change
during our car's second pit-stop.

I did another double-stint to the finish. I started in fifth position,
and soon after passed Rick Kelly's Jack Daniel's Commodore to move up to
fourth.

The lap times for the leading four cars were quite close while I was
racing. We all had a similar strategy with pit stops and driver changes.

There were no Safety Cars during my stint so the gaps between us
remained similar until the finish.

In Bathurst week I will travel to Sydney on the Monday and spend a
couple of days with my parents, who live at Penrith, and then head west
to Mount Panorama on the Wednesday.

This will be the busiest and most exciting week of the year for all the
teams and drivers, with plenty of extra sponsorship and corporate
commitments on top of the usual pre-race activities.

Bathurst attracts the interest of many people outside traditional
motorsport fans, so it is an important opportunity to showcase our sport
before a bigger audience than usual.

The interest is reflected by the television ratings. It is expected at
least 1.5-million viewers will watch this year's telecast on Channel 7
on race day alone, which is the most of any championship round.

Keep smiling.

JC

PHILLIP ISLAND RESULTS - JAMES COURTNEY
EVENT 9, V8 Supercar Championship, (September-11-13)

Qualifying: 4th
Qualifying Race: 4th
Qualifying Grid Position: 5th (with Steve Johnson)
Race Result: 4th (with Steve Johnson)

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS (after event 9): Jamie Whincup (Ford) 2,254; Will
Davison (Holden) 2,083; Garth Tander (Holden) 1,738; Craig Lowndes
(Ford) 1,725; Steven Johnson (Ford) 1,590; Mark Winterbottom (Ford)
1,574; James Courtney (Ford) 1,370; Russell Ingall (Holden) 1,364; Rick
Kelly (Holden) 1,336; Lee Holdsworth (Holden) 1,310