The Holden Racing Team’s James Courtney and Garth Tander have endured a tough final day at the Perth 400 with the factory Holdens finishing 15th and 22nd respectively in this afternoon’s 200km sprint.

In qualifying earlier today, Courtney set the fifth best time with his #22 HRT Commodore registering a sharp 0:55.4214 lap.

Starting from the third row of the grid, the 2010 Champion began this afternoon’s longer 83-lap race with good pace and held down fourth position throughout the opening stages before moving into third on lap 24.

Despite driving consistently and re-emerging in third position after the shuffle of first pit stops, Courtney sustained a punctured left rear tyre on lap 43 which effectively ended his race.

On the other side of the garage, teammate Garth Tander did not improve as he would have hoped and could only manage to register the 17th quickest time in this morning’s 20-minute all in dash.

With the final race of the weekend underway, Tander again proved that his VF Commodore had good race pace fighting his way into 10th place on lap 22 before pitting for the first time one lap later.

After the field settled following the first run of stops, Tander again found himself in 10th place with a car package that was performing very well.

Unfortunately, like his teammate, Tander was also the victim of a puncture which put an end to his race on lap 40.