van Gisbergen: We had the speed, just no luck.

SP TOOLS Racing's Shane van Gisbergen had a miserable end to the Falken Tyres Tasmania Challenge at Symmons Plains Raceway on Sunday, the penultimate round of the V8 Supercar Championship.

The 19-year-old was feeling confident going into the second race of the weekend after an outstanding drive in the greasy conditions on Saturday netted him P5.

However after charging up to fourth he suffered a fuel pump problem and was forced to withdraw, leaving him to come from the back of the grid for the final race.

He was making progress in race three but a drive through penalty negated his progress and he was later excluded by the stewards as SBR failed to ensure the approved camera was fitted to his car.

"We settled into a good rhythm in race two and were running in the top five easily. Then we had a fuel pressure problem and while we were able to switch to the reserve for a while we knew it wasn't going to last," said Shane.

"We had good speed and good tyres for race three and we knew we could come through. I went to pass Marcus Marshall but he moved across on me. I couldn't stop and turned him around. And then was give a drive through penalty. We know we have the speed but we had some bad luck."

James Courtney meanwhile, the innocent victim in a collision on Saturday, drove through the field from the back of the grid to finish 17th in race two in the sister SBR-run Ford Falcon.

He recorded the fifth fastest lap, a superb effort considering he was working his way through traffic for most of the 50 laps.

He made up further ground in the final race too, breaking into the top ten and setting the fastest lap time until near the very end when race leader and eventual winner Jamie Whincup edged him out.

"Race two today was pretty good. We had a slight issue with the right rear tyre and lost 10 seconds there. And from there we got back up to 17th," Courtney noted.

"The second one this afternoon was quite good. I had a good start and a good clean run the whole way through. We had good pace and were able to jump up quite a few spots. We had a good race so at least we leave here on a high.

"I'm excited about Oran Park now [the next and final event]. It's usually a good track for us. I got my first podium with SBR there in 2006. It's a good fun track and a good one to end the season with."