Top 10 Finishes For Kmart's Murphy And Kelly
26/3/2004 20:13 (Press Release) -
Murph produces scintillating shootout lap Friday to grab pole, fights back twice in R1, Kelly battles in-car dramas all day Saturday. Kmart Racing’s Greg Murphy and Rick Kelly are fourth and sixth respectively in points following the opening round of the V8 Supercar Championship, the Clipsal 500, held in Adelaide on the weekend.
Murphy finished fourth in Saturday’s first 250km leg, coming back from a costly mistake in pit stop strategy that dropped both he and Kelly down the order and a late race spin which included contact with the safety barriers, while he battled car set-up in Sunday’s final leg to finish ninth – the combined results giving him fourth overall for the weekend.
Kelly endured an extremely tough race in difficult conditions on Saturday to finish a commendable 12th, while his fighting drive in Sunday’s leg a major highlight of the weekend, the 21-year-old’s aggressive but clean passing moves allowing him to finish sixth.
“For all the things that went wrong on Saturday – my air hoses kinked and fell off, my water bottle boiled, I couldn’t see with oil from another car all over the windscreen and we missed the pit strategy – I’m pretty happy Kmart Racing was able to come away with some good points for the weekend,” Kelly said. “We changed things with our set-up for Sunday and while we didn’t quite have the pace we finished with a good result.”
Murphy said changes to his Kmart Racing Commodore’s set-up Sunday proved to be detrimental to his and the team’s chances of converting their qualifying form and Saturday performance into a race win.
“Even though we were able to fight back twice on Saturday to finish fourth, looking at the lap times the car clearly still wasn’t quite quick enough to challenge for the win, so we made changes and we went the wrong way – simple as that,” he said. “You have to keep trying to find speed, which is what we did. Kmart Racing learned a lot on the weekend and we’ve got a lot of hard work to do, but it’s only the first round. The point system makes things tough, but we’ll keep working away.”
On Friday, Murphy claimed his fourth pole position in the last six races when he produced a scintillating lap in the #51 Kmart Racing Holden Commodore, recording a time half a second quicker than the second placed Jason Bright – the lap moving him seven spots up the grid for Saturday’s first 250km leg.
“I thought it was a good lap, but there were seven cars to come after me, so I didn’t think it would last. We were all quite surprised that it did, but it was a real nice surprise to have!” Murphy said.
Kelly recorded the 11th quickest time in qualifying but was inserted into the top 10 when Paul Radisich’s time was thrown out, only to be told moments before the run-off started that the decision had been reversed.
“I was sitting in the car all strapped in with the helmet on ready to go and it was only a minute or two before I was to drive out of the garage that we got a revised order for the shootout,” Kelly said.
Reigning series champion Marcos Ambrose won both races on the weekend to give himself the perfect start to the season, Castrol Perkins Commodore driver Steven Richards finishing second each time.
The next round of the V8 Supercar Series for Kmart Racing is at Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney on April 2-4.
Clipsal 500 Race 1 results (78 laps): 1. Marcos Ambrose - Pirtek Falcon; 2. Steven Richards, Castrol Perkins Commodore; 3. Russell Ingall, Caltex Havoline Falcon; 4. Greg Murphy, Kmart Racing Commodore; 5. Paul Weel, PWR Commodore; 6. Paul Morris, Sirromet Wines Commodore; 7. Mark Skaife, HRT Commodore; 8. Paul Dumbrell, Castrol Perkins Commodore; 9. John Bowe, OzEmail Falcon; 10. Glenn Seton, Ford Credit FPR Falcon
Clipsal 500 Race 2 results (78 laps): 1. Marcos Ambrose, Pirtek Falcon; 2. Steven Richards, Castrol Perkins Commodore; 3. Jason Bright, PWR Commodore; 4. Paul Weel, PWR Commodore; 5. Jason Bargwanna, Orrcon Steel Falcon; 6. Rick Kelly, Kmart Racing Commodore; 7. Paul Radisich, Betta Electrical Triple 8 Falcon; 8. Jason Richards, Tasman Motorsport Commodore; 9. Greg Murphy, Kmart Racing Commodore; 10. Todd Kelly, HRT Commodore
Championship positions (following first of 13 rounds): 1. Marcos Ambrose 192; 2. Steven Richards 186; 3. Paul Weel 171; 4. Greg Murphy, Kmart Racing 159; 5. Jason Bright 147; 6. Rick Kelly, Kmart Racing 144; 7. Paul Morris 132; 8. John Bowe 126; 9. Mark Skaife 126; 10. Jason Bargwanna 120.
Release Date: 22/03/2004
Kmart Racing
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