WHILE James Courtney placed in the top 10 of the V8 Supercars’ championships for the eighth time in nine years and picked up six podiums, season 2015 will still go down as one of disappointment for the Holden Racing Team star.

He not only suffered a freak pit-lane accident in August at Sydney Motorsport Park which left him with a punctured lung and five broken ribs, but he missed out on contesting the Bathurst 1000.

It not hurt the 2010 V8 Supercars champion both in terms of his title aspirations – the endurance rounds carrying more points that any others during the season – and because the Great Race ranks as his favourite on the calendar.

“It’s the race we all live for. It’s our grand final – I’m gutted,” Courtney said when realising he would not drive at Mount Panorama.

“To be taken out through no fault of my own is massively annoying.

“The muscle was torn off the front of my rib cage. The cartilage was broken; ribs were pushed into my spine; muscles on my back were smashed – there was quite a bit of trauma.”

The injury, which occurred when Courtney was hit by debris blown by a helicopter, is one that he is still recovering from.

“They said it will at least be a couple of years with dramas,” Courtney said.

“When I really inhale I can feel it and some arm movements I can feel it. It is something that will be with me for a while.

“But when I am driving I am too focused to worry about it – it doesn’t affect me.”

Courtney was sitting fifth in the championship when injured and by the time he returned to racing at the Gold Coast 600, he had slipped to 10th.

He missed out on that round at Sydney, being injured before the weekend races, plus Sandown and Bathurst as well.

“I think everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong,” Courtney said.

He was set to compete in his 11th Bathurst 1000 and with Jack Perkins as his co-driver, was hopeful of bettering his second place finish from 2007.

Still, missing out on that chance will make Courtney more keen when he returns to Mount Panorama this October.

The Holden Racing Team garage will only run two cars at Bathurst – Lee Holdsworth’s 2015 Walkinshaw Racing Commodore now to be raced as a single-car entry for owner Charlie Schwerkolt.

“There’s a big shake-up at HRT, cutting it down to two cars,” Courtney said.

“We need to get the team back to where it should be – at the front and getting results.

“It’s a more focused approach. It is going to be easier as a team to develop the cars.”

The 2016 V8 Supercars series starts on March 3.