Friday favourite: When Aussie alpha males thrived at HRT

James Courtney's arrival at the Holden Racing Team in 2011 as the defending Supercars champion had the potential to upset the apple cart. But concerns that he would not gel well with its established star Garth Tander proved ill-founded, and today Courtney regards him as his favourite team-mate

In a 30-year career spanning Europe, Japan and Australia it takes James Courtney an impressively short amount of time to nominate Garth Tander as his favourite team-mate.

When Courtney and Dick Johnson Racing were fighting for the 2010 V8 Supercars title, behind the scenes it was anything but smooth sailing. Team owners Dick Johnson and Charlie Schwerkolt were at loggerheads and before the championship showdown at Sydney Olympic Park, Courtney and his manager Alan Gow had a deal in place for him to join the Holden Racing Team for 2011, a move confirmed the week following his coronation.

The thing was, the Walkinshaw family-owned Holden works team already had an established lead driver – 2007 champion Tander. Many wondered how and if two alpha male drivers in the same garage would get on. The answer was, and is, “really well”.

“When it was announced that I was going to HRT, everyone was saying that we would not get on,” asserts Courtney, who will call time on his racing career at the end of next season. “I remember really early on, I realised that we had the same sense of humour, and he is actually a really funny, nice bloke. He acts like someone else when he is on TV!

“The first day, we were talking about things like movies. We liked the same movies, he was pulling out the movie lines I was about then, and I thought, 'you are actually an alright bloke, and not the arsehole I thought you were going to be!'

“There was a really good level of respect between the two of us. He has had an amazing career and I respect what he has achieved so much. He is a good, hard but fair racer.”

The Courtney-Tander partnership netted no further titles. Courtney peaked with sixth in 2014 and Tander by placing fifth in 2011. It continued until the end of 2016, when Tander departed for Garry Rogers Motorsport. But Courtney's respect for Tander, who retired from full-time Supercars competition in 2018, remains strong today.

“We had quirks with the cars that we like differently, but we didn't ever argue about the direction that the car should be going in,” adds Courtney. “We always wanted to steer it in the same direction.

“Even now, we sort of gravitate towards each other. We are about the same age, we both have kids, we have a lot in common. He would be the guy I would do Bathurst with, out of everyone.”

"There was a really good level of respect between the two of us. He is a good, hard but fair racer"
James Courtney

As for his favourite car, in spite of two huge testing crashes at Monza and Silverstone in 2002, and never getting to drive it in a race, Courtney still has affection for the Jaguar R3-Cosworth.

“I know it tried to kill me!” he smiles 22 years later. “It was the pinnacle; nothing has ever matched the speed, matched the thrill. If anyone said that I could drive one car from my career again – and I could make sure it wasn't going to break! – it would be that one. It was just mind-boggling.”