AutoAction
FREE DIGITAL MAGAZINE SIGN UP

KELLY RACING WORKING THROUGH RELIABILITY ISSUES

Kelly Racing working through reliability issues - Photo: InSyde Media

By Bruce Williams

Kelly Racing working through reliability issues - Photo: InSyde Media

Kelly Racing working through reliability issues – Photo: InSyde Media

Progress has been made in the most recent rounds by Kelly Racing in terms of unlocking speed and reliability out of the Lubner Motorsport-built Holden Astra TCRs.

By HEATH McALPINE

Andre Heimgartner, who shifted from the Subaru produced the car’s top performance at Winton by qualifying second for Race 1 and finishing the weekend’s events in the top 10. Queensland Raceway also provided highlights for the Kiwi, but his weekend ended early with mechanical failure.

Teammate for that round, Alex Rullo also had a competitive showing, but his four-round deal was complete allowing Hamish Ribarits to take over the seat for Winton and the Super3 frontrunner also had a strong run.

The upturn in form can be credited to engine builder Vmax Engineering providing an engineer to aid with the issues the team had been encountering earlier in the season.

“We had all sorts of dramas with wiring loom in them and he came over to give us a bit of a hand at QR to fix some issues, then post-QR we’ve fixed a few more issues with it,” team co-owner Rick Kelly explained.

“This is the first round that neither car has misfired, so that has seen an improvement in performance.”

The Subaru side of Kelly Racing continues to be a tough slog - Photo: InSyde Media

The Subaru side of Kelly Racing continues to be a tough slog – Photo: InSyde Media

The Subaru side of the garage continues to be a tough slog, but team’s hands are tied due to the homologation of the car and improvements cannot be made in the factory, which has proved frustrating.

“The Subarus are quite challenging because there’s things on those cars that keep failing and because absolutely everything is homologated, all you can do is prepare the car to the best, then wait for things to break and replace them,” Kelly explained to Auto Action.

Winton was a disaster for the Subaru side of the garage as axles, driveshaft and fuel pressure issues curtailed the weekend for newcomer Bryce Fullwood and Molly Taylor, who was undertaking her last round. In fact, the rally star’s road car was used as a parts car in the final race, the driveshaft used in her car for the final race.

The team took to Molly Taylor's road car for spare parts - Photo: InSyde Media

The team took to Molly Taylor’s road car for spare parts – Photo: InSyde Media

“We did three axles this weekend. If it was a Supercar, we would have re-designed the axle after the first time, upgraded and fixed it. In this series, you don’t have that ability with what you’ve got so they’re quite tough.”

When quizzed whether Kelly Racing may take a bigger role in developing the Subaru package further, Kelly explained there was plenty of changes that could be made, but it is too late into this season to commit to a complete overhaul for next year.

“There’s heaps of room,” Kelly responded.

“We could re-design the whole car and become the official homologated team or try and work with the team [Top Run Motorsport] in Italy. We then would need to do a re-design of the whole car for next year’s program, but it’s too late.”

For more of the latest TCR Australia news pick up the current issue of Auto Action. Also make sure you follow us on social media FacebookTwitter, Instagram or our weekly email newsletter for all the latest updates between issues.