Kelly was able to gradually move up the order, taking advantage of his soft rubber. Had a Safety Car came out in the last third of the race, the gap to the leaders, who started the race on ‘softs' and were now of hard tyres, would have evaporated, giving Kelly a real chance at a podium finish.
As it was, Kelly's #7 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore was still knocking on the door of a top five finish, losing a spot to Fabian Coulthard on the final lap as he attempted to pass Shane Van Gisbergen.
Rick Kelly's day was dashed when he suffered a Watts Linkage failure in the rear end of his #15 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore in the opening laps of qualifying, putting him out for the session.
The Jack Daniel's Racing crew replaced the component ahead of the race and Rick set about charging from 28th place on the grid to make the best of the day.
Rick Kelly made up eight spots on the first lap in a stirring drive, finishing in 14th place but crucially saving his softer Sprint tyres as well as two brand new sets of the harder Control tyre for Sunday's 65-lap race.
Jamie Whincup won today's opening race of the Queensland House and Land.com 300 at Queensland Raceway ahead of James Courtney and Mark Winterbottom.
JACK DANIEL'S RACING QUOTEBOARD
Todd Kelly - #7 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore:
"It was looking good there for us," said Todd Kelly.
"I would have liked a Safety Car about two thirds of the way through the race - we would have been laughing with the soft tyres on for the end.
"The Jack Daniel's Commodore was just too hard on its tyres. I drove it extremely smoothly and carefully and only just caught the cars in front, bit by bit, just to try and look after the tyres.
"And even still when I got to those guys, the car's tyres were just toasted by then. It was quite hard to pass plus there was a lot of oil all over the track, which made it a bit harder
"At the end of the day we just didn't have the car speed but it's a good result all the same."
Rick Kelly - #15 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore:
"We didn't do any qualifying whatsoever so we were unsure of how our Jack Daniel's Commodore was going to go on a good set of tyres," said Rick Kelly.
"I'm really stoked. The crew has given me what I consider to be a bloody good car considering our circumstances.
"To be honest, it was a heap of fun out there. In the first few laps we picked a fair few of them off and that's I guess is when racing is enjoyable.
"We still need to make a few improvements now that we've got a few laps under our belt on good tyres, we will know what to do for tomorrow when we have really good tyres available to us and have the softs still to run as well."
2009 V8 Supercar Championship Standings
Championship Points - After Race 15 of 26
1. Jamie Whincup 1941pts
2. Garth Tander 1674
3. Will Davison 1416
4. Craig Lowndes 1340
5. Steven Johnson 1314
6. Mark Winterbottom 1212
6. Lee Holdsworth 1212
8. Fabian Coulthard 1077
9. James Courtney 1064
10. Russell Ingall 1058
11. Rick Kelly 1055
18. Todd Kelly 846
RESULTS: Qld Raceway Race One
1. #1 Jamie Whincup 33 laps
2. #18 James Courtney
3. #5 Mark Winterbottom
4. #17 Steve Johnson
5. #111 Fabian Coulthard
6. #7 Todd Kelly
7. #33 Lee Holdsworth
8. #25 Jason Bright
9. #9 Shane Van Gisbergen
10. #67 Tim Slade
14. #15 Rick Kelly
RESULTS: Top 10 Shootout
1. #1 Jamie Whincup 1:10.8529
2. #5 Mark Winterbottom 1:10.8590
3. #18 James Courtney 1:10.9178
4. #2 Garth Tander 1:10.9715
5. #888 Craig Lowndes 1:10.9888
6. #17 Steven Johnson 1:11.0443
7. #9 Shane Van Gisbergen 1:11.1024
8. #111 Fabian Coulthard 1:11.2470
9. #25 Jason Bright 1:11.3434
10. #7 Todd Kelly 1:11.7262
RESULTS: Saturday Qualifying
1. #25 Jason Bright 1:10.7753
2. #18 James Courtney 1:10.8912
3. #5 Mark Winterbottom 1:10.9075
4. #888 Craig Lowndes 1:10.9631
5. #1 Jamie Whincup 1:10.9804
6. #111 Fabian Coulthard 1:11.0057
7. #2 Garth Tander 1:11.0162
8. 17 Steven Johnson 1:11.0384
9. #9 Shane Van Gisbergen 1:11.1231
10. #7 Todd Kelly 1:11.1323
28. #15 Rick Kelly 1:12.5234
QUEENSLAND HOUSE AND LAND.COM 300 DETAILS:
Circuit: Queensland Raceway
Location: Ipswich, Queensland
Circuit Length: 3.12 kilometres
Format: 33-lap race (Saturday) and 65-lap race (Sunday)
2008 Polesitter: James Courtney
2008 Race 1 Winner: James Courtney
2008 Race 2 Winner: Mark Winterbottom
2008 Race 3 Winner: Mark Winterbottom
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
All times are local Australian Eastern Standard Time
Sunday 23 August 2009
10:15am - 10:35am: Qualifying (for Race 2)
1:05pm: Race 2 - Series Race 14 (65 laps)
TELEVISION SCHEDULE - SEVEN NETWORK
Times subject to amendment - please check local guides.
Sunday 23 August 2009
12:00pm - 3:00pm (V8 Supercars)
