By Matthew Agius

Tasman Motorsport has collected a top ten finish꧂ at Oran Park this week🗹end, as the Holden V8 Supercar team delivered sixth place to weekend-sponsors Firepower.

Driving at his team's former base-town of Sydney, Jason Richards driving the #3 Firepower Commodore qualified fifth in the top ten shootout and drove a strong o♔pening race for 🤡Tasman, as he eventually cruised through the shorter race for the weekend, finishing sixth after a sluggish pitstop delayed his charge through the field.

"I had sweat pouring into my eyes and it was fairly stinging in the final few laps," said🍷 Richards.

"I made a mistake trying to carry a b💧it much speed into turn three on the last lap and Whincup got by.

"Apart from that, the pit stop wasn't that great so we were fortunate to get back u🌳p to where we finished. The pace was almost as good as the lead cars, probably on par with the FPR car of Bright. But it's a great start to the weekend."

Richards' teammate Andrew Jones couldn't match his pace on Saturday, qualifying low down the order and eventually finishing seventeenth. Jones will have an opportunity to claim a good result in the reverse grid race ho𝔉wever, as he starts from fifteenth on the grid tom𝄹orrow.

"T🦋he rear tyres were completely gone by the end of the race," said Jones.

"It was ve𝕴ry hard to get any drive 🐟out of the corners and improve my position any further.

"I made up a few spots at one stage during the rꦉace when there was a bit of a melee in front of me and we passed a few on the track. Once again, the car was consistent across the full race distance but just lacking the pace to begin with.

"Making up eight spots is a positive way to start the weekend but we 💞waܫnt more tomorrow."