Fighting to the Finish for Jack Daniel's Racing

SYDNEY, Australia – The Jack Daniel's Racing Nissan Altima duo of Rick and Todd Kelly battled hard to the finish in the final 200km race at Sydney Motorsport Park yesterday, registering results of 14th and 15th respectively.

Following an opening lap incident that saw the entire field pit under safety car, Rick Kelly immediately started to climb up the order, cracking the top-ten on lap 11 after starting from 17th.

Swapping back to soft tires on lap 26 of 51, Rick was then engaged in a battle to the checkered flag, which resulted in a dropped spot on the last corner following contact with Garth Tander.

The result sees the younger brother provisionally rise to 15th in the season point score.

Starting from 21st position, Todd Kelly meanwhile gained five positions after six laps. Rising as high as 12th, Todd had to settle for 15th at the checkered flag.

The V8 Supercars Championship continues with the first two-driver event of the season, the Sandown 500, from September 12-14.

JACK DANIEL'S RACING QUOTEBOARD

RICK KELLY - #15 Jack Daniel's Racing Nissan Altima:
Qualifying Race 28: 17th
Race 28: 14th

"Again we are showing a lot of potential with one of the Nissans in each session and every race. It's just up to us now that we've found some gains and have the pace just to be more consistent and get all four cars up there. Today was obviously long and pretty tough. Strategy was a big part of it, and I don't think our strategy was too bad; it just took us a little time to get the car settled on the soft tires and we lost a couple of spots, which is a bit of a bummer. We also lacked a bit of pace in the middle of the race on the hard tires as well. There's still a bit of tuning to do there, and certainly (James) Moffat's car was pretty strong, and we can learn from that one. It's not ideal to finish the race on a last corner incident, like that with Garth (Tander). He was a little wide, and I got my nose underneath him, he turned in and there was contact."

TODD KELLY - #7 Jack Daniel's Racing Nissan Altima:
Qualifying Race 28- 21st
Race 28- 15th

"I was really looking forward to this weekend to get a good result, but it wasn't to be. The race yesterday in the wet was shaping up to be pretty good, but unfortunately I had some drama at the end with Garth (Tander), which cost us that one. Today was a fresh day, so I was looking forward to it. I had a good car in qualifying, and just before I put the softs on I had a big brake problem just sitting in pit lane, so I didn't really get a lap on the softs. After that I was really praying for it to rain again. Starting back where I was, in the dry there's not a hell of a lot you can do. Unfortunately, we didn't make the most of the weekend."

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