Holden Racing Team V8 Champion, James Courtney has finished fifth in Race 25 of the 2013 V8 Supercars Championship at the Winton 360 today.

Courtney qualified his VF Commodore in eighth position in this morning’s 30-minute all-in dash to start on the fourth row of the grid for today’s 60/60 Super Sprint. Courtney completed the first 20-lap segment of the race in sixth place after battling hard with Coulthard and Van Gisbergen.

Courtney made a good start to the second segment executing a slick passing manoeuvre on Van Gisbergen early. From there, he was locked into a tight battle with Winterbottom but despite his best efforts, was unable to take fifth place from the factory Ford pilot. He held firm to deliver a well-deserved top six result at race end.

On the other side of the HRT garage, teammate Garth Tander endured a challenging qualifying session finishing 16th. Tander and his engineers worked hard to improve the performance of car #2 ahead of this afternoon’s sprint.

With the race underway, Tander was quickly on the move - the 2007 Champion claiming four places at the conclusion of the initial 20-lap stint.

Determined to fight his way into the 10, Tander worked his way past his Walkinshaw Racing stable mate, Russell Ingall, to claim tenth by lap 21. As the race drew to a close, Tander gained two additional places to finish eighth.

Sunday will be another busy day for the Holden Racing Team with two 15 minute qualifying sessions at 11:15am and 11:45am, and two 100km races at 1:35pm and 4:15pm.

Garth Tander, #2 Holden Racing Team Holden VF Commodore

“Qualifying this morning did not go to plan – our speed on the first set of tyres was quite good but we could not get improved performance from the second set of tyres and ended up 16th.
“The car was quite good in the race and we managed to move up to eighth at the finish.

“We’re looking for a much better qualifying result tomorrow which should put us in a position to deliver an improved race result.”

James Courtney, #22 Holden Racing Team Holden VF Commodore

“The car was pretty good in the race today but we can certainly improve.

“We’ll look at the data tonight and make some changes ahead of the two qualifying runs and longer races tomorrow morning.

“I’d love to have a crack at a podium finish!”