By Matthew Agius

Tasman Motorsport has collected a top ten finish at Oran Park this weekend, as the Holden V8 Supercar team delivered si♕xth 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 opening race for T🌳asman, 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 bit much s🦹peed into turn three on the last lap and Whincup got by.

"Apart from th🗹at, 🏅the pit stop wasn't that great so we were fortunate to get back up 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 seꦐventeenth. Jones will have an opportunity to claim a good result in the reverse grid race however, as he starts from fifteenth on the grid tomorrow.

"The rear tyres were completely gone by the end of th𒐪e race🐈," said Jones.

"It was very hard to get any drive out of the cor🍸ners and improve my position any further.

"I made up a few spots at one stage during the race 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 lackin𓆉g the pace to begin with.

"Ma🌺king up eight spots is a positive way to start the weekend but we want more tomorrow."