Motorsport: Courtney wins opening race

It didn't bring him any championship points but V8 Supercar driver James Courtney was thrilled to claim Ford's first race win for 2010 at the Australian grand prix on Friday.

The Dick Johnson Racing driver claimed the honours in the first of three non-championship races at the Albert Park street circuit this weekend, winning a 13-lap sprint race from Holden's Garth Tander.

After Jamie Whincup's four race wins in the Middle East and Tander's double in Adelaide earlier this month it was the first time a Ford had led the pack home this year.

And while it doesn't carry the same cachet as a championship round victory, the win will give Ford fans something to look forward to in a season where the blue oval is outnumbered almost two to one in the V8 field.

"It's great. We're pretty outnumbered here with the Holden and they've pretty much taken everything this year so it'd be nice to come out of the weekend winning the whole thing," Courtney said.

"It's fantastic for Ford, we've taken a bit of a battering this year but in the championship you only need one to win and all of us are pretty high up in the championship.

"It's going to be tight but it's turning out to be good fun."

Courtney had started the race second on the grid behind pole-sitter Tander and it looked like another Holden win was on the cards as the Holden Racing Team driver held the No.1 spot for most of the race.

But Tander's Commodore was struggling with gearbox issues and an error breaking into turn three allowed Courtney to nip ahead and take the race.

"Disappointing we didn't win the race but car speed was very good, small mechanical issue, but we'll fix that tomorrow and have another crack," Tander said.

"Good race and roll on tomorrow."

Another Ford, that of young New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen, claimed third spot ahead of TeamVodafone pair Craig Lowndes and Whincup.

"It's good to see a Ford finally win a race, unfortunately it's the wrong team but we won't worry about that," van Gisbergen said.

"Pretty good for us, we've worked on the car all weekend and have a little way to go but pretty happy."

Tander's late dramas paled into comparison to those suffered by Rick Kelly, who started the race in fourth position but was 29th by the end of the first lap.

The Holden driver ran wide down the straight as he tried to steal a march on Courtney at the race start, only to go off track at turn one before spearing off again later in the lap to fall to the back of the field.

Kelly eventually finished 24th, while brother Todd, who started third, also ran into some trouble early and finished sixth.

The V8 action continues throughout the weekend with 13-lap races on Saturday and Sunday.

- AAP