Eyes on GP prize for Jack Daniel's Racing

ALBERT PARK, Australia – The Jack Daniel's Racing pair of Rick and Todd Kelly are looking to continue their momentum from the Clipsal 500 at the Australian Grand Prix this weekend and capitalize on a year's worth of development with the team's Nissan Altimas.

At the corresponding meet last year, both drivers figured prominently in the results, with Rick registering a best race result of sixth, while Todd placed seventh in the final race.

The Championship opening meet on the streets of Adelaide saw the realization of off-season development for the squad, with Rick scoring a fifth in the Sunday race, while Todd finished a weekend best of ninth in race two.

The fast and flowing nature of the Albert Park circuit throws a different set of challenges at team engineers, with the track's characteristics vastly different to the tight confines from Adelaide.

On track action kicks off on Thursday with a pair of practice sessions and a sole qualifying session, before two races on Friday, and single races on Saturday and Sunday.

JACK DANIEL'S RACING QUOTEBOARD

RICK KELLY - #15 Jack Daniel's Nissan Altima

"I'm really excited about the potential we had in the car at the Clipsal 500. As the days have passed from that event, you relive every moment of the weekend trying to understand how you could have gone better," said Rick Kelly.

"For me it was those mistakes that caused me to get drive through penalties no doubt, and then at the end of the race I've relived every corner of how I could have gotten past Fabian (Coulthard).

"Being in that position and thinking through the processes, I think is a fantastic thing. This time last year we were in a very different position.

"Coming off the back of a pretty solid result at Clipsal, it's so important for us to carry that momentum into the Grand Prix and out of the Grand Prix into Tasmania, so we're putting a lot of effort into the GP to ensure that we can get a car that is quite speedy around there, because it's a very different track to Clipsal.

"It's so important to carry that momentum, to carry pace that is good enough for us to be up the front and to get results that are competitive at the front of the field.

"At the moment we are putting 100 percent focus on that, and the Grand Prix is equally important as any other round we go to in ensuring we can carry that momentum."

TODD KELLY - #7 Jack Daniel's Nissan Altima

"The Grand Prix is always one of my favorite weekends of the year," said Todd Kelly.

"The whole atmosphere at the event I reckon would be in my top-three tracks we race on. I've had a little bit of success over the years at that place, and it was a really good run for us last year.

"It was only our second event with the all-new Nissan Altima, and we had quite a strong weekend. So we've made a lot of quite significant improvements since this time last year, and we're really looking forward to getting on the track and seeing how we go with the cars in 2014 spec. I'm quietly positive that it will be a pretty solid weekend for us."

2014 FORMULA 1 ROLEX AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX

Circuit: Albert Park Street Circuit
Circuit Location: Melbourne, VIC
Circuit Length: 5.303km
Qualifying Format: One 30-minute qualifying session
Race Format: One 10-lap race, three 12-lap races

WEEKEND SCHEDULE

(Times are in Australian Eastern Daylight Time)

Thursday March 13, 2014
1:30pm 2:00pm: Practice 1
4:10pm 4:40pm: Practice 2
6:00pm 6:30pm: Qualifying

Friday March 14, 2014
11:00am 11:30am: Race 1 (10 laps)
2:25pm 2:55pm: Race 2 (12 laps)

Saturday March 15, 2014
3:20pm 3:55pm: Race 3 (12 laps)

Sunday March 16, 2014
1:15pm 1:50pm: Race 4 (12 laps)

CHAMPIONSHIP POINTSCORE

(After 3 of 38 races)
1. Craig Lowndes - 282
2. Fabian Coulthard - 230
3. Shane Van Gisbergen - 221
4. Jamie Whincup - 199
5. Rick Kelly - 198
6. James Courtney - 192
7. Mark Winterbottom - 189
8. Tim Slade - 163
9. Garth Tander - 150
10. James Moffat 140
20. Todd Kelly - 70

2014 V8 SUPERCARS CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE

Date, Event, Location
Feb 15, sydney.com V8 Supercars Test Day, Sydney Motorsport Park
Feb 27-Mar 2, Clipsal 500 Adelaide, Adelaide Street Circuit
Mar 13-16, 2014 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, Albert Park
Mar 28-30, Tasmania 400, Symmons Plains Raceway
Apr 4-6 Winton 400, Winton Motor Raceway
April 25-27, ITM 500 Auckland, Pukekohe Park Raceway
May 16-18, Perth 400, Barbagallo Raceway
June 20-22, SKYCITY Triple Crown Darwin 400, Hidden Valley Raceway
July 4-6, Townsville 500, Reid Park
Aug 1-3, Coates Hire Ipswich 400, Queensland Raceway
Aug 22-24, Sydney Motorsport Park 400, Sydney Motorsport Park
Sept 12-14, Wilson Security Sandown 500, Sandown Raceway
Oct 9-12, Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, Mount Panorama
Oct 24-26, ARMOR ALL Gold Coast 600, Surfers Paradise
Nov 14-16, Phillip Island 400, Phillip Island Circuit
Dec 5-7, Sydney 500, Sydney Olympic Park

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