Phillip Island: Kelly Racing race report

TOUGH RACE BUT GRITTY PERFORMANCE FROM KELLY RACING

Kelly Racing has fought hard despite luck not going its way in terms of race strategy at the L&H 500 at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in Victoria today.

Jason Bargwanna was unable to capitalise on his strong speed in the #11 Rock Commodore, with the cards not falling his way as he was forced to save fuel in the final segment of the race.

Bargwanna and co-driver Glenn Seton finished in 20th position in the 113-lap race, a result that does not properly show the potential of the Rock Racing entry in the V8 Supercars 'season of endurance'.

Tony Ricciardello and Taz Douglas rolled the dice on race strategy in today's 500-kilometre race, looking to complete today's race with just two pit stops.

Unfortunately for the young guns, the tactic of saving fuel cost them in terms of race pace, but they were able to bring the #16 Stratco Commodore home in a credible 25th place.

Holden veterans Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife won today's L&H 500 ahead of Mark Winterbottom and Luke Youlden and the #8 Commodore of Jason Richards and Andrew Jones.

The next event of the 2010 V8 Supercars Championship Series is the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama on October 7-10.

KELLY RACING QUOTEBOARD:

JASON BARGWANNA - #11 Rock Holden Commodore

"We had a good weekend and showed that we had good speed, good qualifying and good pace in Race 1 in the Rock car," said Jason Bargwanna.

"Today we opted for a different strategy, which meant that we had to save some fuel towards the end of the race.

"Our strategy may have cost us a bit of a result, we've had a bit of a drama about getting enough fuel in the car but we'll have a look at that for Bathurst."

GLENN SETON - #11 Rock Holden Commodore

"It's a long day and strategy can go any way," said Glenn Seton.

"The last safety car hurt us a bit, but Jason done a great job this weekend in the Rock car.

"At the end of the day we didn't have what we needed to get a good result."

TONY RICCIARDELLO - #16 Stratco Holden Commodore

"The whole race we were looking after fuel economy, probably the only guys who did the race in two stops," said Tony Ricciardello.

"The third stint had to be quite slow to make sure we got to the end with our fuel strategy. In the end it could have gone either way.

"The Stratco Commodore was reliable, we kept it in one piece and stayed out of trouble to make sure we got to the end."

TAZ DOUGLAS - #16 Stratco Holden Commodore

"The race had it's ups and downs, we stayed out of trouble and got to the end," said Douglas.

"We tried to go for a two stop strategy but it turned out that we had to go too slow saving fuel, so it was neither here nor there.

"The Stratco car came back straight with no incidents and finished the race, so that's not bad a result."

-source: kelly racing