Million Dollar Man.....

[mac]

Originally Posted by Muznik

This ****s me to tears, yes the V8's are my favourite form of motorsport so therefore my (or this case others) opinion doesn't count ? You have to be an elite F1 following, cheese & wine type to have an opinion on a driver's ability ?? BS!!

Not at all. As long as you can recognise that other forms of motorsport exist and that the drivers that come from them, may actually have some more talent than a V8Supercar driver.

I, too, love the V8s dearly, but I recognise that as far as motorsport goes, Australia is a bit of a backwater - regardless of what you want to believe, there is far more to motorsport than the V8s.

By all means, love the V8s, support them as your favourite - and yes, your opinion counts. But what s***s me to tears are V8 fans that have absolutely no knowledge of, or respect for any other form of motorsport.

eg. Dazza's quote that James was p***-farting about in go-karts in Europe.

I can't wait to get out to Oran Park...

[Denosaur]

Originally Posted by mac

Though, for those that see V8s as the centre of the motorsport universe, I guess that would be difficult to comprehend.

Yes, well, they say that assumption is the mother of all ............ , there 'mac'.

Like Muznik said, get way to support your argument!!! I'm done here if that's the line you want to take.

[dazza027]

mac, you have no bloody idea what forms of motorsport Im into, or where I place V8's in the overall scheme of things. I was 8 yrs old sneaking out of bed at 2am in the morning back in the 80's to rather sneakily watch the formula one telecast on ch 9, Ive followed the 500cc's, since gardner won the title in 87, when I was 10, Ive followed allll sorts of racing, Ive competed in rallies, karts, club racing, demolition derbies, the list goes on, so dont you dare presume I have no idea about motorsport, hell, I was marshalling at hidden valley from 96 thru 2000 at various times and was a crew member for a fairly bloody good HQ holden team in 98 99. In that time Ive seen some outstanding drivers, and I'll bet my balls to a dollar that a fair few of them would drive circles around james bloody courtney.
If he was so bloody good, why is he still here? why did he come back? Cos he looked in his bag of talent and realised the bloody thing is empty. Kids are winning go kart championships just about every other day and for all I care, a few kart wins, and f3 win and a Jap bing banger title count as much as a handful of ****, because, thats where his immense talent ran out.

[eduardo1]

Interesting thread. Seems James is the next Ambrose - polarises opinion like few others. Here's my take on a few things.

The salary. Having seen these types of stories before - pretty much any figure quoted by the Daily Terror it's wise to just halve it. $500K for a round-winning driver with a strong profile sounds about right to me.

His profile. With the exception of Lowndes, James has the highest profile of any V8 Supercar driver in the mainstream market. This will continue to grow as C7 love him and are intending to use him a lot more in 2009. This would be a huge part of the appeal for Jim Beam to make him their face. Besides, he's hardly any less 'Jim Beam' than the two baby-faces Johnson and Davison.

Formula One. While it's not true that he 'turned down' an F1 drive, it is true that he knocked back offers to return to Europe to pursue open wheelers. After the Jaguar team cut its junior team, where he was one of the very few F3 drivers to actually paid to drive instead of paying, he dominated F3 in Japan. He was then offered drives in Europe, which he knocked back as he was no longer interested in making it to F1. He didn't even enjoy Formula Nippon racing and chose instead to race Super GT.

****farting around in go-karts. This one's barely worth justifying, but given he's one of the world's most successful ever kart racers, a category that all bar a couple of F1 drivers of the past two decades have come from, his achievements there are worthy of high praise.

SBR. James joined SBR at the wrong time. The reversal in fortunes of Triple Eight and SBR coincide with the moving of Campbell Little from one to the other. SBR hasn't been the same and the development of the cars have not kept pace. In his first full season, James was given the Development D4 engine, which was slower and less reliable than its predecessor which everyone else was using.

If you think he's overpaid - how many round winners are in the field? How many of those do you think are genuinely available as an alternative choice to hire? And how many of those round winners are likely to be future champions.

You can knock James about many things if you like, but he is one of a small handful of drivers that have the ability to win a V8 Supercar championship.

[BlueMax]

Well Said. I agree.

[speedreader]

Well done Eduardo1 - Finally, someone else who hasnt turned a pathetic news story into a personal attack against a driver who's only crime in relation to this thread was to say 'No comment' to a journalist.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Where is Ray Kershler these days?

Answer Is Here

[Casper]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

Answer Is Here

Mr GTR must be bored.

[peckstar]

it is interesting to read this thread with the benefit of hindsight

[Casper]

Originally Posted by peckstar

it is interesting to read this thread with the benefit of hindsight

Life is like that. I had the pleasure of reading many letters I wrote 40 years ago and how my thoughts then compared to what actually happened later on. A bit off topic but this is a thread from the dead anyway.

[Rachel Richards]

What a refreshing read....

I don’t think my opinion has change one iota, even three years down the track.

Little Jimmy has simply reinforced the following, yes he:

• Can still drive:
• Still Crashes regularly: (except last year)
• Is again proven to be a mercenary bustard, who chases the big $$$.
• Has an ego bigger than the car he drives.