IN his 11 years of competing in the Supercars series, James Courtney feels none have been harder that what he has endured in 2017.
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While beginning with a podium in race one at Clipsal, since then the HSV Racing driver has more often finished near the rear of the field than the front of it.
“I’ve been going horrendously … it’s not one of the toughest years, its the,” he said. “I think it’s just really as a team we haven’t fired this year.”
Running 19th in the drivers’ championship is certainly not where Courtney wants to be, so he is hoping that the Enduro Cup can help him change his fortunes.
He and co-driver Jack Perkins placed 10th at Sandown last month, but Courtney wants to do better when it comes to the Bathurst 1000 to ease the pressure he is putting on himself.
“I think there’s probably more pressure, more personally because you want to make the whole thing better, but publicly probably less because no-one expects anything from us. So it’s a bit strange,” he said.
“I’m never more hungry than anywhere else, it's not like ‘Here are the enduros now I’m going to try harder now’.
“But definitely if you pull a result out at Sandown or Bathurst or the Gold Coast, you can turn a really crap year into not such a bad one because you’ve still notched a podium or a win at a high level event.
“Put it this way, I’d rather win one of the enduro races than at Eastern Creek.
“We will be pushing, we’ll be pushing. We are due for some good results, that’s for sure.”