Valuable gains as Rick Kelly jumps 22 places
7/4/2005 14:27 (Press Release) -
It was progress all round for the HSV Dealer Team at Albert Park today as drivers Rick Kelly and Garth Tander tested different race set-ups. Kelly made up 22 places from the back row of the grid to score a top 10 finish, reversing his fortunes from Friday’s race and placing himself in with a chance for Sunday’s 10-lap final.
In a race marked by numerous incidents after a wet start, Kelly was quickly on the pace and moved efficiently up through the field, climbing 20 places by half race distance and finishing a strong 10th on wet-weather tyres.
Tander also made progress from the second last row, climbing 11 places. However, his different race set-up was not as effective as Kelly’s for the full race distance, and he took a conservative line to make certain that his #16 VZ Commodore went the full 19 laps on fading wets to gain valuable data for the season ahead.
Team Manager Rob Crawford said the race had proved a valuable test for both Commodores. He said Kelly’s lap times showed the team was on the pace and making valuable headway in readiness for the V8 Supercar Series opener in Adelaide.
#15 Rick Kelly – 10th – fastest lap: 2:09.6 (lap 16)
“Garth and I had two different set-ups in the car and mine actually worked a bit better than his, which is good because that’s what we thought would happen. We now know what direction to take for the dry. If tomorrow is dry, it should be a good experience for us.”
#16 Garth Tander – 19th – fastest lap 2:12.2 (lap 15)
“Regardless of what the conditions were, we wanted to have different set ups on the cars, as we were treating this race as a 19-lap test session. Rick’s car worked a little bit better, so we have learned something. Apart from that, it was really a case of staying out of trouble and testing things that will help us find the optimum set up.”
Release Date: 05/03/2005
HSV Dealer Team
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