James Courtney: Genuine four-car operation key to Tickford’s success

James Courtney has spoken about how the four-car team operation of Tickford Racing is a key factor behind the team’s recent form and a rejuvenation for the 2010 series champion after his departure from Walkinshaw Andretti United at the end of last season.

After winning his championship with Dick Johnson Racing in 2010, Courtney switched to the red camp at the Holden Racing Team (now WAU) for 2011, staying with the outfit until the end of 2019 but without any more championship or Bathurst success.

Moving to Tickford Racing at the start of this year after the first round of the championship with Team Sydney turned sour, Courtney has said that the team’s open book policy and genuine four-car assault is a reason why they’ve been so successful in recent rounds.

“We’re very much a four car team whereas at WAU it was two and two or three and one,” Courtney said.

“No one really worked that well together whereas here, it’s open book which is what blew me away when I came over; everyone’s been so open, everyone is happy for each other.

“When someone does well, the guys from the other garage are coming in like with yesterday when Lee (Holdsworth) did well, everyone was genuinely happy while with other teams in the past, you could have a great result and the other guys maybe look at you and say ‘well done’ while you’re getting changed.

“I said to Tim (Edwards) and Rod (Nash), it’s a credit to them to have a tight group of blokes who enjoy working together and that speaks volumes through the results we’ve been having.

“All four cars are really competitive, all four cars have had podiums at races through the year. If one car is struggling, we’re all talking to try and see what’s different with the things we do and how we approach the, working on techniques which is great.

“It’s been so refreshing for me, especially transitioning between the Holden Commodore side of things to the Ford Mustang, it’s what I’m enjoying at the moment, working with those guys.”

Courtney has just signed on to race with Tickford again next year, seeing him through to the end of the COTF/Gen2 era with the Ford team.