James Courtney on Clipsal 500 Race 2: “I really had to earn that one”

James Courtney and Jamie Whincup are joint leaders of the V8 Supercars Championship after taking a win and a second place each on the first day of the Clipsal 500, with Courtney celebrating a hard-fought win at the Adelaide street circuit, with a balls-out last lap to keep ahead of the faster Holden of six-time champion Whincup.

“The second race was a really tough today particularly against Jamie,” said Courtney. “He is a fierce competitor and he didn’t give me an inch.

“It was a good hard race and I really had to earn that one.

“I had to be 110% committed through Turn 8 every time to get enough of a margin so I didn’t get passed into Turn 9. Anytime you beat these guys it’s a good race, so to finish in front is a good feeling.”

Whincup put on a dominant display in Race 1, but was unable to do anything about Courtney in Race 2 despite fighting it out over the last half of the race after the 2010 champion had been able to get ahead of him at the start.

“It’s certainly been a good day,” said Whincup. “Unfortunately in the second race we didn’t quite get off the line which was the story of the race. We pushed as hard as we could but James Courtney ran a good race and the best we could do was second. A first and second finish on day one, we’ll take that and move on to tomorrow.”