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Supercars great James Courtney has announced he is canning his retirement plans in a sensational about-face he joked is all about avoiding a divorce from his model wife Tegan Woodford.
The 45-year-old - who won the V8 Supercars championship in 2010 - had planned to walk away from the sport after 20 years of racing, but will now instead carry on after signing a shock deal with the Team 18 outfit.
A veteran of 605 races in the category, Courtney explained that his backflip came about because he wouldn't have been content with his career if he gave it away now.
'I thought after 20 solid years in this sport that I was content to retire,' he said.
'But I couldn't go cold turkey.
'I would've ended up in another divorce. I can't afford another one. I could barely afford the first one.
Supercars great James Courtney (pictured with wife Tegan Woodford) has shelved his retirement plans in order to chase the 'holy grail' of his sport
The 45-year-old (pictured with Woodford) won the V8 Supercars championship in 2010 but felt he still had unfinished business after starting in motorsport aged just eight
'Going cold turkey would have led to my second divorce.'
The big attraction of the new deal for Courtney - who also told News Corp that he got his start in motorsport at the age of eight - is the chance to win the big race that has so far eluded him.
'I have won the championship but I have not won Bathurst. It is the box that remains unticked,' he said.
'It is the holy grail of our sport and at the end of the day there was no way I could turn down an opportunity to continue in that ultimate quest.'
A former Formula One test driver, Courtney split with his first wife Carys in 2018 after spending 16 years together.
'We share two amazing children and our priority is and always will be our children,' she said in a statement at the time, referring to their daughter Zara and son Cadel.
The end of their relationship came after Courtney re-proposed on their 10-year wedding anniversary in 2015, with the then-couple going on a second honeymoon the following year.
Courtney had a short romance with cricket great Michael Clarke's ex-wife Kyly before he and Woodford became an item in April 2021.
Courtney (pictured with Woodford) joked that going cold turkey from racing would lead to his second divorce
The couple eloped in 2022 and welcomed their first child, son Kobe, soon after. He was joined by their daughter Opal in March this year
Courtney (right) is pictured at this year's Bathurst 1000 race - the jewel in the crown that has eluded him throughout his career
He was given the unflattering nickname 'The Handbag' shortly after their relationship took off as other Supercars drivers ribbed him about often being pictured performing household tasks in the background of her glamorous Instagram posts.
One of those posts, which featured Woodford wearing a sheer black negligée while he cooked a meal in a kitchen, saw fans lash out.
'I'm sorry if my post yesterday upset a few people, I thought it was funny and would make people laugh in these tough Covid times,' Courtney wrote on Instagram as he addressed the controversy.
'The world is already full of so much hate. We don't need to add to the already out of control cyber bullying epidemic.'
Woodford and Courtney announced their engagement in January 2022 and she gave birth to their first child, son Kobe, in October that year.
That came after the couple eloped at a Brisbane registry office in early September 2022.
'We kept it quiet for a while then it started being not so quiet so I thought we better say something. It was just us two, the kids Zara and Cadel, my parents and Tegan's mum,' Courtney said.
'You need to have witnesses there so we figured our mums would be the witnesses and we wanted the kids there because they are a big part of everything.'
There was more baby joy for the couple this March, when they welcomed daughter Opal into the world.
'Our hearts are full, and out family is complete,' they wrote on Instagram.
