24th September 2015

COURTNEY'S ADVICE TO AUSSIE JUNIORS AHEAD OF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

James Courtney on his way to winning the 1995 World Junior Championship in Portugal

Twenty years ago a young fresh-faced Australian named James Courtney burst onto the International karting scene with victory in the 1995 World Junior Karting Championship in Portgual.

This weekend a pair of Australian teenagers will be looking to follow in Courtney’s footsteps at the 2015 CIK-FIA World KF-Junior Championship in Italy.

Brisbane’s Ryan Suhle and Melbourne’s Aaron Cameron will be flying the flag for the Aussies in the underage competition. For Courtney, Suhle’s entry will hold significant importance for the 2010 V8 Supercars Champion, as the teenager will be competing aboard his own kart brand – JC Kart.

“I’m very excited about seeing Ryan in action this weekend, I was hoping to be over there to support him but I’ll be tuning in through the live streaming on the internet instead,” said Courtney.

“It’s his first international race, I’m not sure who’s more nervous – him or me?”

Courtney says that the experience of racing against the world’s best can be a daunting one, however, they can all be beaten.

“It’s a while ago now but 1995 is a year I remember fondly,” said Courtney.

“For me the craziest thing was just to be there with the factory teams and everything, but once you pulled on the helmet it was like being at Lithgow and Oran Park.

Despite having his last competitive race in karting more than 15 years ago James Courtney has some very fond memories of his kart racing career (Pic: Coopers Photography)

“Racing in Europe matures you very quickly, you need to understand that all of the other drivers are just like you and you can’t be intimidated by them. They’ve all got two arms and two legs just like you, there’s no reason why they can’t be beaten.”

Despite enjoying his last competitive race in karting more than 15 years ago, Courtney has some very fond memories of his kart racing career – which included racing and defeating numerous Formula One drivers – and the lessons he learnt during those years in Europe.

“My biggest rival in karting would probably be (Vitantonio) Luizzi, we went head to head in just about every event we went to. Kimi Raikkonen, Anthony Davidson and Jensen Button were always there as well, while Robert Kubica, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were one step behind us,” said Courtney.

“I had some great battles with them while I was in Europe and we all learnt a lot by racing each other at that level, but it is also the smaller events back home that I remember well.

“The little things like club races that we’d have at Lithgow where (Ryan) Briscoe, myself, Troy Hunt and Mark (Winterbottom) would race and some of the dices we’d have as young guys were awesome. Some of the racing there was probably the best I’ve had in my career – we were passing each other four and five times a lap.”

Also competing at the same event as the junior pair will be South Australian Josh Tynan, who last year made his international debut at the corresponding event in the KF class. He will once again be teaming up with the Energy Corse outfit to compete in the CIK-FIA World KF Championship.