Reigning champion Rick Kelly consolidated his championship defence with another handy bag of points when finished just two points off the podium in Round 5 of the V8 Supercar Championship at Eastern Creek.
The consistent Toll HSV Dealer Team star was unlucky not to have scored his fifth successive podium finish after leading the final of three races in the early stages, only to be tripped up by the tiniest of pit stop delays.
His stop was fractionally longer than HRT rival and eventual round winner Mark Skaife, forcing Kelly to wait for Skaife’s Commodore to pass before exiting his pit bay. This also allowed Todd Kelly, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup to get by before he could get up to speed, forcing Rick Kelly into fifth place for the race.
However, a third place in Race 1 and a second in Race 2 helped him into fourth place for the round, behind Skaife, brother Todd and Whincup.
Remarkably, his fourth placing was his worst round finish for the season, after standing on the podium in all previous rounds.
Rick Kelly’s 50-point haul for the round was just two points behind Whincup, who maintained third position in championship battle.
Kelly leads the points table on 274 points from team-mate Garth Tander (250) and Whincup (220).
Tander staged a gritty fight-back after a clutch failure on the start line in the morning’s Race 2. Starting the race from fifth on the grid, his #16 Commodore started to creep over the line.
He pulled on the handbrake as hard as he could, but stalled the engine. By then, his clutch had taken a public holiday, so he had to ease the Commodore off the line by starting the car in gear while hoping no one in the field hit him from behind.
Mercifully, he escaped disaster but was faced with a major game of catch-up from last place.
He managed to claw his way up to 15th place and two valuable points in Race 2, before racing to 6th place behind Rick Kelly in Race 2 with a masterful display of consistent fast driving and a cunning late-pit stop strategy.
Tander salvaged 27 points for the round to help maintain his second position in the title race and a gap of 30 points over Whincup.
The West Australia is looking forward to the next two rounds at Hidden Valley and Queensland Raceway, where he has a strong record.
#1 Rick Kelly (Race 1 – 3; Race 2 – 2; Race 3 – 5; Round – 4th, 50 points; Championship – 1st, 274 points): “We got off to the good start in that last race to get the lead, and we just made a slight blue in the pit strategy, I guess. Skaife pitted behind us and had a slightly better stop and we didn’t get out of the box in time. Obviously I had to stop again, which put us back. It was a little bit disappointing, going from leading the race to finishing fifth and off the podium, which is not great. But we can’t complain over a pretty good weekend, really. ”
#16 Garth Tander (Race 1 – 5; Race 2 – 15; Race 3 – 6; Round – 8th, 29 points; Championship – 2nd, 250 pts): “The car was pretty good in that last one. We have been struggling all weekend to get a good balance, and finally got it in that last race which helped us to salvage some points. The clutch failed in the Race 2 start. We will have to look at it – it has happened a couple of times. We look forward to the next couple of rounds. We have been strong at Hidden Valley and Queensland, so we will be trying to get some points back. ”
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