FORMER teammates James Courtney and Thomas Randle embarked on quite the Saturday skirmish in Darwin.
A long-running Race 1 scrap left both cars worse for wear and in need of an additional pitstop en route to respective placings of 23rd and 24th.
“An incident on Lap 33 prior to the entry to Turn 5 when Car 55, Thomas Randle, was alongside Car 7, James Courtney, and the rear left wheel of Car 55 interlocked with the rear right wheel of Car 7 causing Car 55 to become airborne and a collision occurred between the two cars with the rear wings interlocking and then bodywork interlocking,” read the stewards report.
“The DRD determined that there was no evidence of any breach of the Rules by the Driver of either Car.”
There was then further mention of: “A series of incidents at Turns 1, 6, 7 and 8 on Lap 35 again involving Cars 55 and 7.
“Car 55 was behind Car 7 at the entry to Turn 1 and made minor avoidable contact with the rear of Car (7) but did not gain a position as a result.
“Car 55 again made avoidable contact with the rear of Car 7 at the apex of Turn 6, this time pushing Car (7) wide and gaining a position as a result.
“However, at Turn 7 Car 55 went wide and Car 7 then made slight contact with the rear of Car 55 at Turn 8 gaining the position back.
“Because the respective positions before Turn 6 were restored, the DRD determined not to refer the matter to the Stewards.”
It was part of a miserable weekend for both Tickford Racing and the Blanchard Racing Team, those squads accruing the fewest round points in Darwin (excluding the Triple Eight wildcard and second Brad Jones Racing garage).
“It went on for like five laps,” Randle said of the Courtney exchange on the Sunday broadcast.
“I don’t really know what he was trying to achieve, just probably trying to annoy me.
“We were on like 10-lap fresher tyres and we took four, he took rears, so I honestly thought he just would have let me through because we were in a different race, but it turns out we became a race together.
“Unfortunately our rears came together, my left-rear, his right-rear, and they interlocked and that put paid to that result.”
For Courtney, there was more contact to deal with in Race 2 on the Sunday.
“It’s been a really tough weekend to be honest,” he said in a post-round social media video.
“We didn’t have the qualifying speed and the races have been really tough for us. (On Sunday) a little bit of friendly fire from Aaron (Love, teammate) – we told him to be a little bit more aggressive at the start, didn’t intend that to be with us!”
