CRUNCH TIME FOR KELLYS

Crunch time for Kelly Racing – Photo: LAT

KELLY RACING is four weeks away from deciding whether to stay with four Nissan Altimas for 2020 or swap to Ford Mustangs and potentially drop to two cars.

The Holden Commodore ZB has been definitively ruled out as a potential mount for the family-owned team.

If Kelly Racing does take up the Mustang option and pull back to two cars, the driver line-up is expected to be co-owner Rick Kelly and Andre Heimgartner, leaving out-of-contract Simona De Silvestro and rookie Garry Jacobson looking elsewhere – in the former’s case, potentially outside Australia.

The debate over which way the Kellys will go has been an ongoing saga since Nissan pulled the pin on its involvement at the end of 2018.
The team has been investigating both updating the Altima with fresh bodywork and swapping to a different brand.

While making a body swap to the Mustang would be relatively simple, having to invest in a whole new engine program would be a massive financial burden. At least initially, the team would have to negotiate a customer supply from an engine builder.

The KR management group has consistently cited 2020 changes to the technical regulations governing the cars as the reason it has hedged its bets so long over a decision on what to race.

Mooted changes include drive-by-wire and detuning of engines, aerodynamic downforce reductions and the introduction of a control damper.

Kelly Racing has ruled out the ZB Commodore for a number of reasons, including the centralised supply of parts from Triple Eight Race Engineering and the dominant number of Commodores on the grid.

Kelly Racing has been a four-car squad since its inception in 2009. It has been consistently rumoured along pit lane – and consistently rejected by the team – that it would race two cars in 2020.

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