Supercars racer James Courtney has revealed he didn’t imply to announce his impending retirement from motor racing within the method that he did.
The 2010 Supercars champion was showing on a neighborhood Gold Coast information bulletin to speak about his upcoming profession in actual property when he revealed his intention to step other than racing on the finish of subsequent season.
It appeared like a plug for the company he was becoming a member of, in part of Australia famous for its alternatives in the true property sector.
Chatting with Motorsport.com, the 44-year-old admitted his feedback have been “100% unintentional”.
“I used to be speaking about actual property and I let my guard down,” mentioned Courtney, a Supercars mainstay since 2006 who has made 572 profession begins thus far.
“I used to be not even fascinated about motor racing. It was nothing to do with racing.”
James Courtney, Blanchard Racing Crew Ford Mustang GT
Picture by: Edge Photographics
The Blanchard Racing Crew Ford Mustang driver didn’t assume a lot about it till the day after the information bulletin was broadcast, when his telephone chimed with a textual content from long-time supervisor and mentor, Alan Gow.
“The subsequent morning I woke as much as a really nice message from Gow,” associated Courtney.
“It was ‘Why did you retire on TV final night time, you d***head?’ I wrote to him and defined that I didn’t retire, I simply did an interview about the true property stuff, increase that facet for the afterlife.
“He replied, ‘Have you ever even watched the video?’ I watched it and thought, ‘Oh God!’
“I replied, ‘Don’t be concerned, nobody will decide it up’. So he went to sleep and the following morning, he despatched me a few thousand articles and mentioned, ‘It is even in Autosport!’
“It was 100% a mistake. It was at all times going to be concerning the planning, however I let it out on a neighborhood story about actual property. But when anybody is trying [for real estate], I’m your man…”
Courtney has a greatest results of sixth up to now this season, registered at Perth in Could, having joined BRT from Tickford Racing.
The newest of his 15 wins within the class got here at Adelaide in 2016 with the Walkinshaw Racing Crew.