| The Holden Racing Team duo of Garth Tander and James Courtney have bounced back from a tough qualifying session to finish 5th and 6th respectively in the final race at the Ipswich Super Sprint at Queensland Raceway today.Despite being only being five tenths of a second behind the pole sitter, the HRT qualifying times were only enough for mid-pack starting positions; 14th and 15th. However like previous race events the Commodore VFs had good race pace for the longer 65 lap run around the “paperclip” track, and the team were able to produce some solid results.
Race 20 kicked off in true V8 Supercars style and there was push and shove from the get go. Tander was quick to bolt from the starting grid and gain positions, and by lap two had settled nicely in to 9th. Courtney too muscled his way through to the pack up to 12th during the opening laps.
On lap 13 Courtney was the first of the HRT cars to pit for hard tyres and fuel, Tander was in for his stop just one lap later. After all the field had completed their first stop Tander and Courtney were both positioned well inside the top 10 in 5th and 8th respectively. In the second stint Tander was hunting down Reynolds but despite his pace we was unable to get past.
Courtney was again first to come in for his second stop to swap back to soft tyres and fill with fuel, Tander followed suit. Courtney was able to jump two places during his stop. It was then a long 36 lap stint to the chequered flag, and it was down to managing the soft tyre until the end.
The V8 Supercars Championship next heads to Sydney Motorsport Park, 21-23 August. Courtney and Tander’s positions in the V8 Supercar Championship Series remain unchanged in 5th and 7th.
Garth Tander, #2 Holden Commodore VF
“Tough weekend, we really struggled to get a balance on the car and even this morning we really didn’t have the qualifying pace we needed which has been a bit of a common trend unfortunately during the last couple of events.”
“Again race pace was reasonably strong and made up a few places off the start. The guys did a great job with our strategy and our pit stops and we went from 14th to 5th.”
“So again another top five but we’ll be going away and concentrating on our qualifying speed and making sure we are starting a little bit closer to the front.”
Qualifying for Race 20: 15th
Race 20 Result: 5th
Fastest Lap Time: 1:11.0491
James Courtney, #22 Holden Commodore VF
“It’s a little bit frustrating because we need to get out qualifying sorted, there is no point having good race pace if we are starting that far back all the time.”
“In the race the cars was good and the strategy was good as well. During the first pit stop I didn’t quite launch well enough and at the end of the race I got a cramp in my calf and went off. The car speed was good in the race and we were able to manage it well.”
Qualifying for Race 20: 15th
Race 20 Result: 6th
Fastest Lap Time: 1:11.0209 |
