HRT Race Highlights:

• Both HRT cars qualified inside the top 10 with Tander in 5th and Courtney in 6th. Tander was one of five cars to break the qualifying lap record at Sydney Olympic Park, with a time of 1:27.0533.
• It was anything but a dull start to Race 28 with plenty of changes to positions in the opening stages of the race. Courtney was quick off the line and moved up to 4th place. Tander uncharacteristically lost one place and completed the first lap in 7th.
• For the first eight laps Tander tucked in closely behind Van Gisbergen and Winterbottom, patiently waiting for an opportunity to pass. He didn’t have to wait long; on lap nine Winterbottom and Van Gisbergen came together and Tander safely manoeuvred his was around and move up to 5th.
• Courtney was the first of the HRT cars to pit for fuel and tyres, and he did this on lap 19. He re-joined the race behind McLaughlin and Lowndes.
• Tander was one of the last to make his first stop and completed a 24 lap first stint.
• Courtney’s second stop came on lap 41 and he re-joined the race in front of McLaughlin (who had short fuelled on his first stop) and Lowndes, which affectively put him in a podium position. Tander made his second stop on lap 44 and re-joined the race ahead of Courtney. Both HRT cars now were in contention for a podium finish.
• With just 25 laps remaining, the first and only safety car of the race was called when car 96 stopped on the track. The race restarted with 22 to go and with the field now bunched, everyone around the HRT cars were racing them for position.
• With just five laps remaining Courtney was defending his position from McLaughlin and Van Gisbergen who were surging from behind. Van Gisbergen was on fresher tyres and had come storming though from the back of the field.
• Van Gisbergen passed McLaughlin and was desperate to pass Courtney. Courtney had his elbows out and did not make passing an easy task. In a nail biting finish, Van Gisbergen slipped passed but was re-overtaken on the next corner. Just moments later Courtney faulted and opened the door for both Van Gisbergen and McLaughlin to pass.
• Courtney finished in 5th while Tander cruised home and took 2nd place on the podium.

Garth Tander, #2 Holden VF Commodore:
“Qualifying was good today. I completely stuffed the start of the race up and I had to recover from that. Then there was all that drama with Shane and Winterbottom, and I had to get through that. Once I cleared that I had to catch the bunch in front.”

“I actually spent most of the first half of the race in clear air, and the boys did a great job in strategy to keep me in clear air and take advantage of the car speed we had over everyone else. Then after the last pit stop we popped out ahead of everyone else and we were in second.”

“I knew that I wasn’t going to be fast enough to go with Jamie in those last 20 laps, so it was just a matter of pulling a gap and sitting there. It was a pretty boring last few laps but it got the result we wanted.”

James Courtney, #22 Holden VF Commodore:
“We really sat in traffic for much of today’s race and the front tyre temp just went through the roof. At the end there, Shane was coming at warp speed factor nine; he had that much pace he probably would have got Garth as well if there were a couple more laps.”

“I tried to keep Shane behind we and it was quite a good battle for the last few laps. I didn’t have mirror on that side so I couldn’t see where he was. I just slightly snagged the front and couldn’t rotate it enough, so that was it.”

It was good fun and a good, hard battle all day. The temperatures in the cabin were crazy hot but it was a great job done by the team on the other side of the garage.”