MOTORSPORT: Courtney out as Bathurst revs up

With James Courtney making his expected injury withdrawal from the Holden Racing Team Commodore and Russell Ingall stepping in to replace him, the finalised 27-car field is set to start practice for the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 today.

The V8 Supercars will have three sessions today in preparation for the 161 lap Mount Panorama classic, with two for all-drivers and one session specifically for co-drivers. Tomorrow afternoon the field will qualify and late on Saturday afternoon, the top 10 will participate in the traditional one-lap shoot-out for pole.

Courtney’s absence from the factory Holden had been expected August when he was hit by advertising boards stirred up by a Navy helicopter flying too low over Sydney Motorsport Park’s pitlane.

Courtney suffered a punctured lung and five broken ribs in the incident. He was replaced at the Sandown 500 by Ingall, who now continues his return from retirement alongside Jack Perkins.

There is a pleasing symmetry to the Ingall-Perkins line-up, as it is 20 years since Ingall and Jack’s dad Larry won this race after a dramatic last-to-first comeback.

Not that Courtney, who underwent various cutting-edge treatments in an attempt to be fit for the race, was a willing participant in setting up that reunification. He was finally ruled out of the race on Tuesday night by HRT’s medical advisers.

“It’s our grand final really. It’s the one race that stops the nation for motorsport here in Australia,” Courtney told media on Wednesday at Bathurst.

“To be taken out of it through no fault of my own – I'm massively, massively annoyed with the circumstances about the way it happened. The race we all live for, I can’t do it… So, yeah, I’m gutted.”

HRT was also the centre of attention at Bathurst on Thursday morning after it was revealed V8 Supercars had told the team to remove an unspecified fuel saving device from its cars. In an official statement the category stressed the Walkinshaw family-owned operation wasn’t cheating but that rules had required clarification.

The focus therefore is now on where the balance of performance lies in the field. Much has changed since the chaotic race won by Ford’s Chaz Mostert and Paul Morris last year, which included a ‘lunchtime break’ to repair the freshly resurfaced track.

Mostert is fighting teammate Mark Winterbottom for the championship, the two having broken away from the field in their new Prodrive Racing Australia Falcon FG Xs. Winterbottom (with experienced co-driver, Steve Owen) and Mostert, who has Dunlop development series star Cam Waters sharing his car, will start as favourites on current form. If one of them does win, or teammates David Reynolds/Dean Canto get up, it will be a three-peat for PRA.

Meanwhile, the Holden Commodore’s new aero package for 2015 hasn’t paid off and the General’s team’s have spent much of the year trying to engineer cornering balance into their VFs.

If the Sandown 500 is a true guide, then the Triple Eight pairing of Jamie Whincup and co-driver Paul Dumbrell will be the fastest Holden pairing. They won the race in 2012 and have been defeated narrowly the last two years by PRA. Whincup ignored team orders last year and tried to hold off Mostert to the end, running out of fuel on the last lap.

Whincup also seemed to have fuel economy issues at Sandown, although it was a botched pit stop that put him out of contention.

Shane van Gisbergen and Jonathon Webb are also fast and capable in the Tekno Autosports Commodore, while the best of the rest of the Holden brigade are probably Craig Lowndes/Steven Richards (888), Fabian Coulthard/Luke Youlden (Brad Jones Racing) and Garth Tander/Warren Luff (HRT).

Of the other marques, the Volvo S60 pairing of Scott McLaughlin and Frenchman Alex Premat may figure if the team can get the car to the finish reliably.

Among the Nissan Altimas, there is a certain irony that the only pairing without the much awaited new cylinder-head is last year’s second place finishers James Moffat and Taz Douglas. But then, Moffat is out of contract and his car is the only one in the team without a multi-year naming rights sponsorship attached to it.

There has been plenty of hype this year about the all-woman wildcard crew of local youngster Renee Gracie and Swiss import Simona De Silvestro. While they won’t figure at the front of the race, they will garner plenty of experience for a return bout in 2016.

They have already generated plenty of pre-race hype, as has the move to taller final drive gearing that will keep the cars off the rev limiter as they thunder down Conrod Straight and raise their top seed from the 290s to over 300km/h. The drivers are pretty blasé about the change – it’s hard to pick a 5km/h speed differential when you’re going that fast!

For all the new elements to consider, the race is likely to continue its recent tradition of going to the wire. We won’t really know who is in the frame until the final round of pit stops is completed and/or the last safety car exits. Then everyone will go as fast and hard as they can in the dash to the line.

Here's a few things to look out for this weekend:
>> The Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 on Sunday is race 25 of the championship and the second round of the Pirtek Enduro Cup. The Castrol Gold Coast 600 wraps up the co-driver races in a couple of weeks.

>> All running is on hard Dunlop tyres, seven pit stops in the race are compulsory and the co-driver must complete a minimum 54 of the 161 laps.

>>The winners of the race will collect 300 championship points. Winterbottom leads Mostert by 198 points at the moment.

>>This is the second in a run of three races that Channel 10 will telecast live FTA as well as Foxsports on pay TV. Due to anti-siphoning laws, Fox is obliged break for advertising along with 10, but will continue to show vision of the race in a corner of the screen.

>>The race start has been pushed back to 11am, which means a later afternoon finish. That’s without unexpected delays like last year’s track issues or bad weather that could be coming on Sunday.

>>Defending race winner Chaz Mostert has yet to officially qualify for the Great race. He didn’t set a time in 2013 because he crashed his DJR Falcon in practice and in 2014 he was excluded from qualifying and sent to the back of the grid for passing under the red flag. Mostert is the superstar of qualifying this year in the championship, having already claimed 10 poles, although he is yet to finish P1 in a shoot-out.

>>Fabian Coulthard owns the qualifying lap record at 2min 05.6080 sec, Mostert the race lap record at 2min 07.4913 sec. both times were set on last year’s freshly resurfaced track. Coulthard’s regular endure partner, motoring.com.au’s own Luke Youlden, was one of only one of two co-drivers (along with PRA’s Owen) to get into the 2:05s at Bathurst last year.

>>The flowing, high speed 6.213km circuit with its smooth circuit places a premium on aero balance and damper control over the undulations. Tyre damage is a potential issue because of the high-speed loads placed on the rubber. Teams must work on setting the car for the race and the task of making it quick over a lap for qualifying.