Defending champion Rick Kelly resumed the V8 Supercar Championship lead when he and born-again V8 star Paul Radisich scored the Toll HSV Dealer Team’s second successive second placing in the Sandown 500 in Melbourne.
Once again, Kelly was thwarted in his attempt to run down the race leader over the final laps of the 161-enduro, this time failing by just 2.17 seconds to catch Ford rival Craig Lowndes.
Last year he missed catching Jason Bright by just 0.15 seconds.
Kelly’s team-mate and championship rival Garth Tander came fourth in the other Toll HSV Commodore, despite driving a race that should have delivered a podium finish.
Unfortunately for Tander and co-driver Craig Baird, the #16 car was given a drive-through penalty by officials who said the car’s pit lane speed limiter light was not working at the second pit stop.
The penalty cost Tander almost 30 seconds and three places which he set about making up over the final 40 laps.
The fourth place netted Tander 45 points, compared with Kelly’s 60 points. This mean’s Kelly jumps back into the championship lead by nine points as the see-sawing V8 championship battle between the Toll HSV stars heads to Bathurst for the biggest race of the year.
Kelly has 443 championship points to second-placed Tander’s 434, with third-placed Jamie Whincup 45 points further behind on 389 points.
Tander was frustrated with fourth place yesterday – it was his third fourth place in the enduro classic in four years.
While he conceded that the rule regarding pit limiter lights was in the book, he felt that a drive through had been a harsh penalty for such a small offence.
The team said the light had simply blown during the race – the classic 20 cent part costing a driver a podium finish.
In the end, Tander couldn’t make up the gap on Steven Richards, who came third with Owen Kelly behind the winning Lowndes/Whincup Falcon and Kelly/Radisich Commodore.
For Kelly, the second place finish was a bittersweet experience – bitter because he had hoped to go one better but sweet because he came through the event with yet another big bag of points and his seventh podium finish for the year.
Kelly was full of praise for his team-mate Paul Radisich, who despite residual pain from a shattered leg suffered in a big crash at Bathurst last year, put the #1 Commodore in great position during the first stint of the race.
After starting in eighth place, Radisich handed the car over to Kelly in sixth place - job done.
Carrera Cup champion Baird, who won the Porsche race earlier in the day, recovered from a tardy start – “I was a bit rusty in the V8s” – and some early handling issues to also hand the car over in good position.
When Tander jumped into the car and emerged from the pit lane, he found himself in eighth spot. He worked his way forward to fourth before the ill-fated penalty.
Like all the other top drivers, Tander and Kelly were highly critical of many lapped drivers who made passing a chore. However, they were pleased with the pace of their Commodores and are champing at the bit to get to Bathurst to resume hostilities.
Team Manager Rob Crawford said the team would not decide whether to maintain the Kelly/Radisich and Tander/Baird pairings or switch to Kelly with Tander until closer to the Bathurst race date.
#1 THSVDT Commodore (Round finish – 2nd):
Rick Kelly (Round pts - 60; championship – 1st, 443 pts): “We have to do a better job, I guess. I wish I could do it again from qualifying! I wasn’t quite sharp enough in qualifying and didn’t put the best set up in the car, which hurt us a little bit. We spent a fair bit of time going over the set up and it was good in the warm up – Paul was second quickest which is exceptionally good. It was fantastic in the race as well. Most of us out there on the lead lap had a lot of trouble with lapped cars. But if we had qualified higher, it would have put us in the lead early on. ”
Paul Radisich: “I haven’t enjoyed myself so much for years. I didn’t think I would be back up on the podium again. Congratulations to Rick on the way he drove his double stint. My bit was easy – the first 56 laps or so. I was really pleased with the way things went. The longer I went the faster we went. It is great to be back on track – it has been a real fight back and I am not saying I am there yet, but it is fine when I am out there in a great, competitive package. ”
#16 THSVDT Commodore (Round – 4th):
Garth Tander (Round pts - 45; championship – 2nd, 434 pts): “I love coming fourth here - not! I was disappointed because it seems a very trivial thing for a drive-through when you think we have seen cars finish races with no rain light in the wet and they let that go. But it is in the rules, and we just had to serve the drive-through. The car wasn’t that good at the start of the race, and poor Craig struggled because our tyre pressures were considerably out of the window. But once we got that back to where we needed to be and made a few changes to the car during the race, the car was actually quite fast during the last stint. We managed to use that to fight back from the drive-through, but the other three cars were far too far down the road. ”
Craig Baird: “I was disappointed because I thought I let the team down at the start - I was a bit rusty. It was a hard round, but I really enjoyed working with Garth and the team. It was tough that GT got a drive-through for the sake of a light bulb. However, it gave me a chance to put down a lot of laps and knock some of that rust off before Bathurst. ”
| 
|