A great fight back from both sides of the garage saw Scott Pye finish sixth, and James Courtney ninth in race 28 of 2018 at Pukekohe Park Raceway in New Zealand.

After a disappointing qualifying, both cars made up a combined total of 16 places from their starting positions in the 70 lap, 200km race.

Earlier this morning, both cars struggled to find turn required in the low speed corners, resulting in JC starting 15th, and Scott 16th.

A cracking opening few laps saw Scott pick up a handful of places, while JC opted to stop at the end of lap 1, looking for clear air.

A safety car on lap 7 came at the wrong time for car #25, despite putting them in the lead of the race once the rest of the field had stopped but pushed Scott inside the top-10 with a fuel advantage over the cars in front.

JC did extremely well to lead for the next 30 laps of the race once it restarted. He and Shane van Gisbergen, the eventual race winner, were locked in a fantastic battle for the lead with neither giving an inch.

Scott was finally able to clear Rick Kelly just before stopping on lap 26, where he was able to leap another four spots higher thanks to a shorter stop.

JC’s second stop was much longer than those around him, due to the early stop, which meant he re-joined in ninth.

In the dying stages, Scott dropped back a spot to sixth, while JC just couldn’t quite reel in the two cars in front, who were battling for seventh.

To move forward that much at a track which is notoriously hard to pass is a great result. We’ve still got work to do overnight to improve the cars and give ourselves the opportunity to get on the podium tomorrow.

Today’s result sees Scott move to eighth in the Drivers Championship, and JC 14th, while we move even closer to fourth in the Teams Championship.

Bring on Sunday.

Scott Pye

“It was a really fun opening few laps; it was good racing and we picked up a few spots which was great.

“That put us in a good position when the safety car came out, and we were able to long fill first stop and short fill to get home.

“We need to find a bit more with the car overnight, but it was a great fight back by everyone today.”

James Courtney

“The safety car just didn’t come at the right time for us today with the early stop, but that’s racing.

“It was good fun out the front with Shane in the middle there, we both weren’t taking a backwards step.

“The car was pretty good in the race, just need to start up a bit higher tomorrow.”