Todd Kelly

Monday May 4th, Kelly Racing hosted it's very first ride day at Winton Raceway.

It was an opportunity for us to give back to our sponsors and share with them the V8 Supercar experience.

Kelly Racing team photographer Dirk took a different approach when he climberd aboard car 07, camera in hand, and completed a lap of Winton Raceway. 

To view these fantastic images please click here.... 

 

Jack Daniel's Racing driver Rick Kelly now sits fifth in the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship points standings after seventh place in the sixth race of the season at Winton Motor Raceway in rural Victoria today.
A strong and consistent weekend in Winton sees Kelly in the top five in points after what was just the third championship event for the new Kelly Racing operation, which made its debut on the streets of Adelaide in March.

After six races this season, Kelly has scored a top 10 finish in all but one race in this year's championship and lies fifth in the points, just three behind Lee Holdsworth who sits in fourth place.

Kelly's second top 10 for the weekend came in a challenging race for the 26-year-old, who did not have any soft ‘option' tyres available for today's 66-lap race after using them in yesterday's race.

Rick Kelly has given Jack Daniel's Racing its best finish of the season so far with an outstanding fourth place in an exciting race at Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria today, a result that also saw the dual Bathurst winner as the first Holden home.
Kelly started Saturday's 33-lap race from 11th on the grid and on the softer ‘option' tyre, the extra grip seeing him push the #15 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore up the order into second position in the opening part of the race.

 

Hi All,

It's been the busiest and most exciting start to a season yet for me this year with the launch of our all new team ‘Kelly Racing'.

The past few months have been a challenge with such a huge workload and with the races being so close together.

I think our pace is about where we thought it would be at this point for both Jack Daniels cars. We ran a few new components in the car at Hamilton and learnt a lot. This weekend at Winton we will be trying our more new components which we have never used before. Our aim is to make enough of a gain so that we can increase our pace and be competitive with the front runners.

Todd and Rick Kelly will face a balancing act this weekend after running on the new Dunlop option tyre for the first time at Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria today.
Both Jack Daniel's Racing drivers spent much of the day evaluating grip levels from both compounds of tyre on offer at the 3.0-kilometre circuit this weekend.

The first segment of practice saw Kelly Racing co-driver Nathan Pretty drive Rick Kelly's #15 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore, completing seven laps to bed in tyres and start evaluating set-up.

James Moffat drove five slow laps in Todd Kelly's #7 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore, simply ‘roading' wet tyres for the team in preparation for a potentially wet race later in the weekend.

In the second segment of practice, Todd and Rick Kelly were fifth and sixth fastest as they set their first serious lap times using the new soft tyre.

The third segment of practice saw Jack Daniel's Racing concentrate on evaluating and comparing speed between the soft and hard compound tyres, rather than setting outright fast laptimes.

Jack Daniel's Racing drivers Todd and Rick Kelly are predicting more passing - and more accidents - when a softer ‘option' tyre is introduced into V8 Supercar competition for the first time at Winton Motor Raceway in rural Victoria this weekend.
The Bathurst winning brothers see the massive speed difference between the two tyre compounds - estimated at over two seconds per lap at Winton - as a catalyst for more contact between cars.

Each car is permitted to use one set of Dunlop's soft compound SP Sport Maxx Sprint tyre during one of this weekend's two races.

Rick Kelly feels that as faster cars using the soft tyre approach those on the harder compound rubber, the vastly increased closing speeds will lead to more accidents.

Jack Daniel's Racing driver Rick Kelly sits seventh in the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship standings after a solid 14th place finish in the second race of the Hamilton 400 in New Zealand today.
But it wasn't all smiles for the two-time Bathurst winner, who was on course for his fourth top 10 finish from the first four races of the season until a clash with young Kiwi driver Shane Van Gisbergen.

From there his recovery back up the order was further hindered as lapped cars failed to adhere to blue flags and blocked the progress of the #15 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore.

But despite the nuisances, Kelly remains pleased with the progress of the new team and feels that there is still a lot more to come from Jack Daniel's Racing in 2009.

Todd Kelly had bent steering end his race barely after it had started in the #7 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore.

Jack Daniel's Racing drivers Rick and Todd Kelly have both finished in the top 10 in opening race of the Hamilton 400 in New Zealand this weekend.
Both overcame their own problems throughout the race, soldiering on to give their brand new team it's second dual top 10 finish from three points races held so far this season.

Rick Kelly's seventh place finish lifts him into sixth in the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series points standings, with the 26-year-old finishing in the top 10 in all three races held in 2009 in his first season in Jack Daniel's colours.

Todd Kelly followed his younger brother home to grab eighth place, bringing the #7 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore home in the top 10 for the second time this season.

Todd Kelly has given Jack Daniel's Racing a fast start to the Hamilton 400 in practice for Round 2 of the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series in New Zealand today.
Kelly was fastest in the first two segments of practice around the 3.4-kilometre street circuit today and is confident that the strong pace of the #7 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore will continue tomorrow.

In the final segment of practice, Kelly opted not to use another set of new tyres in a session where the track was faster, as tyre bundles marking the back straight chicane were removed.

Brother Rick Kelly is confident of a better showing tomorrow aboard the #15 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore. 

Jack Daniel's Racing drivers Todd and Rick Kelly are confident that their new V8 Supercar team will continue to rise up the order in this early part of the season ahead of Round 2 of the 2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series in Hamilton, New Zealand this weekend.
The second running of the Hamilton 400 will be just the third event for the Kelly Racing operation and it's two new Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodores.

The brothers made a strong start to the season in Adelaide, running in the top 10 and showing solid speed in the team's debut.

With the non-points Australian Grand Prix event and a well-earned break over the Easter period now behind them, the entire team is working hard to ensure further improvement.

Jack Daniel's Racing drivers Todd and Rick Kelly have both finished in the top 10 in their first race as team-mates in the first race in this year's Clipsal 500 in Adelaide today.

It was a phenomenal effort from both drivers, with Todd Kelly gaining 17 positions over the 78-lap race to finish seventh after starting from 24th place on the grid.

Younger Brother Rick Kelly finished in 10th position in a gallant effort, completing the entire race in atrociously hot conditions after his cool suit failed to function for the entire race.

Today was the debut race for four-car V8 Supercar operation Kelly Racing, with both Todd and Rick also debuting two brand new Jack Daniel's Holden Commodores in today's race.

With ECU problems resulting in both drivers experiencing gear change problems both yesterday and today's morning warm-up, efforts by the Jack Daniel's Racing crew gave both drivers strong cars for today's 250-kilometre race.

Both cars showed strong pace throughout the race, boding well for tomorrow's second race of the weekend where both drivers will start from down the order in their original qualifying positions as per the new 2009 rules.

Jack Daniel's Racing driver Todd Kelly has finished the Sprint Gas Manufacturer's Challenge as the fourth-best Holden at the event while coming home in 12th place in the final V8 Supercar race of the Formula 1 ING Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne today.

Kelly contributed 144 points to the Holden tally for the event and was followed home in today's third and final race of the weekend by team-mate Rick Kelly, who finished in 13th place today.

Todd Kelly started from 14th on the grid in his #7 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore while Rick Kelly started the 15-lap race from 16th position, with both making up spots throughout the race while ensuring they stayed out of trouble.

 

The V8 Supercar season is quickly drawing to a close, with the penultimate round – the Falken Tasmania Challenge – taking place at Symmons Plains Raceway, near Launceston this weekend.

 

It’s now the week after Bahrain and we are busily preparing for Tassie – this time of year is very hectic with race meets so close together. 

 

Todd is currently over in the USA attending a Nascar event as a special guest of Jack Daniels. He will be back in Australia this coming Friday and sent back some photo's from his trip.
Click Here to view the Photo's

While the extended break in the V8 Supercar season comes to an end, Todd has been taking a well deserved break up on the farm in Mildura. He has been taking the opportunity to take his new Yamaha  WR 450 for a ride.
He has also been teaching his son Mason all about the fantastic New Holland Tractors he has on the farm. Mason can't wait until his old enough to drive one of these huge tractors.

For all the pictures click Here

 

Another average weekend for us as far as luck goes but a promising weekend for our car speed.

 

Hi all, 

Well we got through the weekend with the un tested brand new car, well almost.

 

I was really looking forward to N.Z. for two reasons, one because the challenge of a new street circuit was a buzz and secondly to see what the car was going to be like.

 

 

 Hi All,

 

Its been a while since I last got a moment to sit down and put a few words together.

 

Things have been flat out since the start of the year at Perkins and with the first few races so close together the workload is extremely high.