The Holden Racing Team’s James Courtney and Garth Tander qualified their HRT Commodores in 13th and 22nd positions respectively for today’s 200km race at the ITM 500 Auckland at Pukekohe.

With an incident free race, Tander battled hard all day to make up a solid ten places and finish the race just outside the top 10 and take the chequered flag in 12th position.

“It was a positive day, despite the fact that we didn’t qualify as well as we would have liked.”

On the other side of the garage, James Courtney also battled hard, despite an off-track excursion in the second half the race, Courtney managed to come home in 14th position.

The 2014 V8 Supercars Championship heads to Perth, Western Australia on 16-18 May.