James Courtney remains solid in his quest to protect his Championship lead after seeking medical attention for a worsening cold.

Courtney was forced to pull out of an appearance at the gala dinner at Jupiter’s Townsville Casino on Friday night.

The Dick Johnson/Jim Beam Ford driver has consulted series doctor Carl Le to treat the cold.

“It’s not affecting what I’m doing in the car. You know people go to work with the flu so I can’t see why it’s going to stop me doing what I do,” a defiant Courtney said.

“I’ve seen Dr Le and he’s given me a lot of stuff to help stop my eyes and nose otherwise it would be pretty messy.”

Courtney pulled out a sizzling lap in the dying seconds of the 20-minute qualifying session to record the fifth best time and earn a place in the shootout.

His 1min13.3422 lap lifted him from 12th as the chequered flag was brought out to close qualifying that was topped by Craig Lowndes who led a TeamVodafone one-two.

Courtney’s team manager Adrian Burgess said Courtney was just over a tenth of a second up on Jamie Whincup, the second fastest qualifier in the session, but was losing time in the final sector.

“The car is not quite right so we will make an adjustment to help James in the final sector to give him better braking stability and more drive,” Burgess said.

Courtney goes into the first 200km leg of the Townsville Event on 1698 points, a slender 57 points ahead of double defending champ Whincup. Lowndes is next on 1452.
By Gordon Lomas 1:46 PM Sat 10 July, 2010 Source: BigPond Sport

Poor James I hope he can last for the whole weekend