Jack Daniel's Racing Sunday report

KELLYS SOLDIER ON FOR POINTS ON TOUGH WEEKEND IN PERTH

Rick Kelly has ensured that his championship points tally has kept ticking over on a tough weekend for Jack Daniel’s Racing at the Trading Post Perth Challenge at Barbagallo Raceway in Western Australia today.

#15 Jack Daniel's Racing: Rick Kelly

Photo by: Chris Von Wieldt

Kelly scored 16th and 12th place finishes in today’s two 50-lap races, enough to sit sixth in the 2011 V8 Supercars Championship points standings after nine races.

Jack Daniel’s Racing was tested by Barbagallo’s low grip surface, with tyre wear an issue for the team all weekend.

Todd Kelly was able to roar up the order in the final race of the weekend today, with set-up changes finally paying dividends and producing great pace from the #7 Jack Daniel’s Commodore.

After starting from 26th place, Todd was able to move up the order into 16th place by the finish, making it an encouraging end to an otherwise trying weekend.

Todd finished 22nd in this morning’s race after starting from 27th position. Rick faired better in qualifying with 16th and 10th place starting position for today’s two races.

Jason Bright and Jamie Whincup won the two races held at Barbagallo Raceway today, with drivers Karl Reindler and Steve Owen lucky to emerge without serious injury after a scary start line crash in this morning’s race.

The next event of the 2011 V8 Supercars Championship will be held at Winton Motor Raceway in rural Victoria on May 20-22.

JACK DANIEL’S RACING QUOTEBOARD:

RICK KELLY - #15 Jack Daniel’s Holden Commodore

“The car was not fast enough on Friday when we rolled it out of the truck and traditionally this year we have been able to turn that around,” said Rick Kelly.

“Unfortunately this weekend we didn’t manage to do that.

“The #15 Jack Daniel’s Commodore didn’t look after its tyres very well at all. We managed to qualify reasonably both days and it just fell back from there.

“The frustrating thing is we went slightly in one direction in set-up in that last race and it was a lot better.

“We now know which way we need to go with the car. Unfortunately it’s three days too late.

“It’s disappointing from the results point of view for us but we have to put that down to a bad round. If this is a bad round for us then that is not too bad. We certainly don’t want to have these sort of weekends but they do happen.

“We know what to do here next year set-up-wise and we head to the next event trying very hard to get back up the front.

“It’s critical to still score solid points when you are not having the best weekend. When others have a bad round, hopefully they are a little further back than what we were here.

“We didn’t have a car that was capable of being in the top six or so. To finish around the ninth to 12th mark is probably not too bad for us considering.

“We did score some points and some others that are around us in the championship points had good rounds and others had bad rounds, so I don’t think we finished too badly given the car speed we had.

“We have a test day at Winton before we race there later this month, so we will be working really hard to get our car speed back on track. I had pole there last year but our cars are very different now to what they were 12 months ago.”

TODD KELLY - #7 Jack Daniel’s Holden Commodore

#7 Jack Daniel's Racing: Todd Kelly

Photo by: Chris Von Wieldt

“I was a bit deflated after the last couple of days going into the last race,” said Todd Kelly.

“We were scratching our heads in terms of what we were doing wrong. We made some pretty big changes to my Jack Daniel’s Commodore for the last race and it was the best it has been by a long way in that race.

“There are a couple of corners where I swear I was going quicker on old tyres in the last race than what I did in qualifying on new ones.

“The difference was massive. We worked it out and it was all a little bit too late.

“If I had that set-up earlier in the weekend I think we were capable of a top 10. Once we qualified poorly the traffic meant it was very hard to get back up there, even with the improved car speed.

“At least we worked it out. After the different range of tracks we have this year we have a lot broader idea on what we need to do with the cars.

“I was pretty nervous that we were not going to work it out but in the end but, just in the nick of time, we found the direction that we had to go in.”

-source: jdr