Gold Coast: Holden Racing Team race report

Todd Kelly takes Gold Coast V8 Supercar round

THE Holden Racing Team has taken the honours in round 10 of the V8 Supercar Championship Series on the Gold Coast with Todd Kelly sealing victory today with two second places to go with his pole position and victory from Saturday.

The #22 Commodore driver fought out today's opening 22lapper with Toll HSV driver Garth Tander, who got the jump on Kelly from the start and was able to lead the HRT driver to the chequered flag.

In the final race it was Kelly who reversed the tables and made the best start to lead into the first chicane.

A multicar pileup shortly after the start which claimed Kelly's teammate Mark Skaife caused a Safety Car period on lap one, though the race quickly resumed once the carnage was cleaned up.

Kelly emerged in front of rivals Tander, Jason Bright, Craig Lowndes and Russell Ingall after pitting for tyres on lap eight, but was passed by his brother Rick who pitted one lap later.

From there the two brothers traded lap times for the rest of the race, Todd unable to do anything about his younger brother.

However, second place was enough to give the 2005 Bathurst winner his first round win since his success at Mount Panorama last year.

While again it was a great day on one side of the HRT garage, it was a terrible day for Mark Skaife. th After starting 25 for today's first race, the #2 Commodore was involved in an incident and forced to pit to remove a damaged side skirt. st Skaife would continue and finish 21 , though his luck would, unbelievably, get even worse in Race 3.

In the wrong place at the wrong time, Skaife ended up hitting the concrete wall soon after the start as a multicar accident unfolded in front of him and other cars ducked and dived to avoid.

While he limped back to the pits, HRT mechanics soon found the steering damage too great to repair in time to get the car back onto the track and he was forced to become a spectator for the rest of the day.

HRT QUOTEBOOK

Todd Kelly (#22 Holden Racing Team Commodore VZ) "It feels really good to be back on top. It means quite a bit to be back up the front of the field. It was a pretty close one in the first race today with Garth. The pace of the cars and track meant it would come down to who got the best start. Surviving that first race was important and from there on getting out in front of Garth in the last race after the pit stop was the plan and it worked. In the last race I knew the only way I would get past Rick would be to do something extreme on the exit of the pit stop at the first chicane and that wasn't worth it to jeopardise winning the round."

Mark Skaife (#2 Holden Racing Team Commodore VZ) "It was just a shocking weekend all round. At the start of the last race I'd got a good start and was heading to the left of Greg Murphy when he moved left to try and avoid a BOC Falcon that was spearing off the wall. He naturally headed left to avoid it and I was three and that sent me straight into the fence. I didn't think the weekend could have got any worse but it did."

-credit: holden racing team