Nissan revives old chassis for injured Kelly

Kelly was the other half of the worst part of the 12-car pile-up, copping the full brunt of Will Davison’s Tekno Commodore in his Nissan’s passenger side door.

The damage was bad enough that the team has decided to park that car – which was new for the start of this season – and build Kelly another brand new chassis, which won’t be ready until after the next four events.

In the meantime the team is rebuilding chassis #003, famous for being the car that won Nissan’s first race at Winton and 2013, and finished second at Bathurst in 2014.

"Chassis #003 has had over a year off, so it's well rested and I think it’s itching to get back on the track," said Kelly.

"It’s definitely come from some iconic results with [James] Moffat, particularly the podium at Bathurst in 2014 as well as the iconic victory at Winton in 2013.

“It’s cool to jump in that car, but it’s a shame to hop out of the car that I had. It still had the new car smell.”

Team manager Scott Sinclair confirmed there will might even be an Easter break for the Nissan crew, despite the increased workload generated by the crash in Tasmania.

"Chassis #003 is now 30 per cent built," he said

"All the stuff that wasn’t damaged from the other car has now been transferred across. The guys are working hard to get it built and hopefully, they’ll get a couple of days off over Easter. Then we should be ready to go early next week."

It has also been confirmed via an MRI that Kelly sustained two minor muscle tears in his left leg as part of the crash – but there are no fitness concerns ahead of Phillip Island next week.

“I still had a sore leg a few days after, so we just had it checked,” he said. “[The MRI] confirmed I’ve got a couple of muscle tears inside my leg above my knee. They’ll heal over the next one or two weeks and will be brand new again.

“They certainly won’t stop me from driving."