Bowe: That was completely unnecessary.

By Matthew Agius

Blood was boiling in the Team BOC garage on Sunday afternoon as lead driver John Bowe was left fuming after an altercation with James Courtney restricted him from progressing up the grid in the third race at the Hidden Valley V8 Supercar round.

After finishing ht morning race in thirteenth position, Bowe started the aggregate grid race from seventeenth position. Making a cracking start, Bowe got as high as fourteenth by the completion of the opening lap. However a collision involving a hit from James Courtney saw Bowe forced off the track at turn one - dropping him to twenty-seventh, and the 1995 Australian Touring Car Champion eventually finished in position twenty-two.

"That was completely unnecessary," said Bowe.

"This year most of the drivers in the field have been pretty reasonable about how they have gone about their racing, but Courtney's display today was completely unnecessary. It destroyed our race and ultimately our weekend.

"As far as the car was concerned, its still not perfect obviously. We have been working really hard to understand how the car works, and I think we are making forward progress."

Teammate and team owner Brad Jones was pleased however, with the progress made on the car over the course of the weekend. Jones, likely to approach retirement in the next few years, seemed happy with the development of the team's new cars that have struggled to crack the top twenty during season 2006.

"I think we have made progress this weekend. My Team BOC BA Falcon was definitely better in that last race than it has been all weekend," said Jones.

"There are a big group of cars that were all in the mid elevens in that race, if we had have started that last race a bit further up, we would have easily held our position. It's definitely that old adage; you finish the race where you start the race.

"The changes we made to the cars before we came to Darwin have really meant that we are learning to tune what is essentially a new car, but I think we are leaving Darwin in a lot better position than when we arrived."

Team BOC was, once upon a time, one of Ford's top three teams, and the most cost-effective in V8 Supercars in 2003 - their lowly Albury-based team able to take it to the big guns on any given day. Regarded as the Minardi or Super Aguri of V8 Supercars, the team has struggled with their new chassis, and sits down the bottom of the championship standings. Their next round will be at Queensland Raceway for the Bigpond 400.