One-time Supercars champion James Courtney has announced that next year will be his swansong as a full-time driver in the tin-top series.
He has been a fixture in the category for the past 14 years, winning the title in 2010, but Courtney, 44, told the Australian news service 9 Gold Coast News that he would step away from racing after the 2025 campaign to focus on his next career in real estate.
“I'll finish this year and do next year and that'll be it for me full-time,” said Courtney, who is currently 18th in this year's standings for the Blanchard Racing Team having achieved a best result of sixth so far.
“I've had a hugely successful career, had a great time and I want to end it on my terms.
“Real estate is actually my first real job now because racing has been my whole life until now.
“I'm coming towards the end of the racing side of my life and I saw [real estate] as a natural progression.
“I have always had a massive interest in real estate, whether it's buying and selling my own houses.”
Courtney was considered a likely Formula 1 driver after winning the World Junior Karting title in 1995 and the Formula A World Championship two years later.
He then achieved British Formula Ford glory in 2000 and stepped up to the British Formula 3 Championship the following year, winning on his debut. He led the series points comfortably in 2002 before he was sidelined after a wing failure on a Jaguar F1 car at Monza meant he missed a couple of races.
He then moved to the Japanese F3 series, claiming the title in 2003, and raced in the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Series, for Toyota, in 2004-5.
In 2006, he moved back to Australia to take on what was then V8 Supercars and won the 2010 title for Dick Johnson Racing.
He has subsequently raced for the Holden Racing Team and Tickford Racing, before joining BRT this season, having only scored one podium in 2023.
He has never won the blue-riband Bathurst 1000 but has scored four podium finishes in Australia's endurance classic.
