Kelly Racing Adelaide race 1 report

Kelly Brothers Start 2012 With Double Top 10 In Adelaide

Greg Murphy

Photo by: John Maricic

Rick and Todd Kelly have made a solid start to the 2012 V8 Supercars Championship with a double top 10 in the opening race of the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide today.

In an action-packed start to the season, the Kelly brothers both opted for different strategy options to reach the finish in their Jack Daniel’s Commodores.

Rick Kelly’s choice to pit soon after the final Safety Car period saw him jump several cars in the 10 laps of the race as others were forced to pit, pushing him up to seventh place by the chequered flag.

Todd Kelly narrowly missed a top five finish, contact with Craig Lowndes in the final stages dropping him from fifth to eighth place.

After a crash ended his qualifying session early on Friday afternoon, Karl Reindler put in a tough drive to score 20th place finish aboard his #11 Fair Dinkum Sheds Commodore.

Reindler was on track for a finish in the top half of the field but contact with Frenchman Alex Premat saw him forced to pit in the final stages of the race with steering damage.

Greg Murphy’s chances of a strong result ended early when a broken damper in his #51 Pepsi Max Commodore saw him make a lengthy pit stop for repairs.

After repairs in the team’s garage saw him drop to 10 laps down, Murphy returned to the circuit to be classified in 24th position to score valuable championship points.

Jamie Whincup won today’s race ahead of Will Davison and Garth Tander, with a further 78-lap race to be run tomorrow.

KELLY RACING QUOTEBOARD

RICK KELLY - #15 Jack Daniel’s Holden Commodore:

“The fuel strategy there for us was a very good call,” said Rick Kelly.

“To be honest I’m just stoked to get back out in the car and have a race. It was very enjoyable out there.

“The strategy in the end worked for us and we ended up in seventh. If we knew when the Safety Cars were going to go out we could have played with it and probably had the car to finish even a little bit higher than that.

“From where we were yesterday I think that result is really good. It was a very enjoyable day, my first race day working with my new engineer Alex (Somerset). He is a very professional operator.

“To be seventh on your first day with a new engineer who has just flown into the country is a very good result, so it's absolutely a sign of things to come for Jack Daniel's Racing and it's good to have both of the Jack Daniel’s cars in the top 10.

“The car was pretty good compared to qualifying, with some bulk changes before the race. So with a little bit of fine-tuning it will be well and truly capable of getting onto the podium.”

TODD KELLY - #7 Jack Daniel’s Holden Commodore:

“It was shaping up alright there towards the end,” said Todd Kelly.

“With only a couple of laps to go I was in fifth place and was hoping I would stay there, but I came together with (Craig) Lowndes at the hairpin and ended up off the track.

“I lost a heap of spots, which is a bit of a shame because I should have been around the top five, which would have been a strong start to the year.

“I’m a little bit disappointed about the race because we could have finished higher. We have improved my Jack Daniel’s Commodore slightly from yesterday. So we will see how we go tomorrow.”

KARL REINDLER - #11 Fair Dinkum Sheds Holden Commodore:

“I’m pretty happy considering what happened yesterday and the struggles we have had trying to get on top of the set-up,” said Karl Reindler.

“I just chipped away at it in the race as I knew it was a race of attrition. I stayed out of trouble and I had awesome pit stops – the boys did an awesome job there.

“It looked like we were in for a 16th place finish. Unfortunately, (Alex) Premat dive-bombed me, hit me and it broke the steering arm and I was forced to pit and lost four spots.

“The damage is minor and the Fair Dinkum Sheds will be good to go tomorrow.”

GREG MURPHY - #51 Pepsi Max Holden Commodore:

“I qualified badly and really struggled with the car, but we improved it this morning in the warm-up,” said Greg Murphy.

“But I had to work hard early as I made a poor start. On that first lap I biffed with (James) Courtney and that bent the steering, but we had OK pace. Then the broken damper put us nine laps down and our afternoon was done.

“It's hard to say if we had the pace to get ourselves further up the field, but we will re-set and show what we can do tomorrow.”