MORE than two decades on, James Courtney is eagerly awaiting the chance to catch up with Guenther Steiner.
The popular former Haas team principal was at the helm of Jaguar’s Formula 1 program in 2002 when Courtney was its test driver.
Courtney, a race winner for the Jaguar Junior Team in the 2001 British Formula 3 Championship, went on to suffer a mechanical-induced high-speed testing crash at Monza in ’02.
Nowadays, Courtney is a Supercars champion and lead driver for the growing Blanchard Racing Team, while Steiner is a global motorsport icon having starred in Netflix’s Drive to Survive series.
Steiner will be a keynote guest of this weekend’s Repco Adelaide Motorsport Festival, a week before he takes on a broadcasting role at the F1 Australian Grand Prix.
In Adelaide, the 58-year-old Italian has committed to experiencing a Supercar on Saturday (March 16), as passenger with Courtney at the wheel.
“He was the boss for a while, so I had quite a bit to do with him,” Courtney told V8 Sleuth.
“Far out, it’s been 20 years. It will be good to catch up with him again and see what he’s up to.”
The car in use will be BRT’s spare, the ex-Declan Fraser Gen3 Mustang acquired from Tickford Racing in the off-season.
Courtney will put chassis TR-27 through a systems check today at The Bend Motorsport Park, where teammate Aaron Love is completing a rookie test.
TR-27 had sat idle since last November’s Adelaide 500.
