On this day: Kelly the quiet achiever

On this day 20 years ago Supercars went racing in the rain at Eastern Creek and Rick Kelly made a name for himself by getting his first solo win.

Read the full AUTO ACTION race review of the single 77-lap affair in the rain below as Mark Skaife and Russell Ingall returned to the scene of their infamous clash just three months on…

The opening round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series in Adelaide last month had a degree of predictability about it, then the opposite applied to the rain-affected Eastern Creek encounter last weekend.

In a race red-flagged 10 laps shy of its original 77-lap duration, Ford’s winning streak came to an abrupt halt with defending champion and pole sitter Marcos Ambrose unable to extend his own personal run of success at the Sydney circuit.

The similarities between this 264-km round and last season’s championship-closing event were weather-induced, though the results this time around were drastically different.

Indeed, all of the three drivers on the podium had not figured at the Adelaide opener nor, remarkably, had they qualified inside the Top-10 Shootout field here at Eastern Creek.

Holden captured their 150th round victory, but it wasn’t courtesy of Mark Skaife, Steven Richards, Jason Bright or Greg Murphy – all of whom had been VY Commodore pacesetters since the non-championship grand prix curtain raiser.

the cover documenting Rick Kelly’s triumph which gave Holden a 150th round win.

Instead, it was young Rick Kelly who drove superbly to incisively, almost imperceptively, slip past the category heavyweights from 17th on the grid to claim an historic win. Kelly became the youngest-ever single-driver round winner – neatly accompanying his mantle of youngest-ever V8 Supercar winner following his Bathurst victory last October with Greg Murphy.

This was not a win inherited by the misfortune of others. It was a win earned by a combination of car speed, calm race craft and the ideal mixture of aggression and caution. Kelly progressively worked his way to the front, overtaking cars with aplomb, until he temporarily hit the lead for the first time on lap 29, just before his first of two compulsory stops.

On lap 42, mere laps prior to a safety car intervention, a similar scenario had unfolded. This time the wholesale stops allowed the Kmart car to retain the lead; a position Rick was keep until the race came to a premature end due to heavy rain that lashed the track and made it patently unsafe to continue.

Rick was quietly content afterwards, saying. “I struggled in qualifying and hoped for rain. It was quicker [driving] off-line in a couple of places but it was difficult to pass as it was incredibly slippery when a slower car made you use the inside line.

“I got nervous knowing I had a string of cars behind me, but I had great mid-corner speed compared to the others.”

If Kelly’s win was an upset, then the honour for first BA Falcon across the line was equally surprising, as the much-maligned FPR squad was given a major boost by a typically buoyant Craig Lowndes.

Having lost another engine on Friday and then struggling to find the pace to qualify 15th in the dry, Lowndes’ sublime wet weather skills guided the CAT car into the runner-up spot, despite a delay occasioned by a cross-threaded wheel nut during his compulsory tyre stop.

Second was snatched away from an equally strong Garth Tander, only a lap prior to the final yellow flag period that ended the race.

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Lowndes conceded, “We made the best of what we had and adjusted the car more on our fuel stop. We have been working hard on reliability and know what we need to make it fast in the dry. Garth’s car had exceptionally good drive off the corners but we crossed over a number of times until I made it stick.”

Tander’s result repaid the graft from his GRM men following their post-Adelaide exertions to repair damage inflicted upon he and teammate Cameron McConville’s pair of Ws. In fact, Tander lost much of Friday’s 90-minute practice session resolving problems that flowed on from that accident, so it was a fine effort all round.

Garth explained, “If you had said to me before the race that we’d get a podium, then I’d have said ‘no chance’.

“The wetter it got, the better mine went and ‘Lowndesy and I had good fun. My first set of tyres weren’t as good as the second set, and we stayed out for a while before I came in for them. That said, it’s a great reward for the effort the boys put in since Adelaide.”

What made the race more interesting were the variable weather conditions, with any dry lines regularly doused by further downpours.

Wet-weather Dunlops of various tread depths abounded, although different chassis setups saw some some cars being strong in heavy rain, while others improved as it dried out.

The wet morning warm-up left teams puzzling over the degree to which they should compromise settings that had been developed during the two days of dry running.

Up until then, the usual suspects had prevailed with predictions of a typical Ambrose-against-Skaife front row.

The current and former champions were only four laps into a much-anticipated battle before a seemingly speedier Skaife erred and spun under brakes at turn two. Mark fought back to third only to later bunker the lead HRT VY after another self-confessed mistake while lapping a slower car.

It was also an eventful outing for Ambrose, salvaging seventh having also fumbled off the road. Team owner Ross Stone later said, “Had it dried up we would have been all right, although it wasn’t a totally dry setup that we ran. If we couldn’t win, at least we picked up points.”

Skaife finished a lowly 22nd, lamenting, “It was one of those days where you had to get a result, so this is very disappointing. I had to say sorry to all our guys as I felt like we were doing as well as we ever had here.

The worst part is I can’t afford to make mistakes, I’m the most critical bloke in the world lof myself] and I have got to do a better job.”

Teammate Todd Kelly also had a disappointing day, finishing 19th following his own excursion that ultimately caused contact with Ambrose and then an ensuing accident with Jason Richards.

In the context of the championship chase, the ultra-consistent Steven Richards heads the standings with a fourth to complement his second at the Clipsal 500.

‘Richo’ lost vital track position with one stop but managed to climb back into contention with a Castrol car that didn’t have the wet weather pace to match those ahead of him.

A similar tale applied to Murphy, who was fortunate to get back up to fifth having made green flag stops, the first due to contact that sent John Bowe spinning.

The safety cars worked to Murph’s advantage in terms of track position, though the Kiwi was less than happy afterwards at a perceived lack of pace that saw him qualify only 12th.

“If we hadn’t had that last safety car, then I’d have been out the back door,” said Greg. “We had the same [handling] issues in the wet as in the dry but the drier it was the better the car was. I’ve spoken to JB and he’s not happy. but it wouldn’t change direction and I couldn’t avoid him.

Bowe had qualified the Ozemail BA quickest, only to run wide in the shootout and slip to tenth. Following his contact with Murphy, JB was only able to climb from the back to 18th, coping with a late-race wiper failure.

The failure of several prominent drivers resulted in some encouraging finishes, notably Steven Johnson (sixth from a disastrous 27th in qualifying). while Jason Bargwanna produced another excellent effort where he (eighth) and rookie teammate Mark Winterbottom (12th) performed well for the Orrcon outfit.

Similarly, Craig Baird (ninth) gave Team Kiwi its best result since fourth at Pukekohe in 2001, while Max Wilson rounded out the top ten to open his scoring.

Triple Eight teammate Paul Radisich was never able to recover from going a lap in arrears when radio problems meant he was caught behind a safety car, a plight that also afflicted McConville.

Hard luck story of the weekend had to be David Besnard in the fledgling WPS outfit’s ex-00 Motorsport BA that actually led a lap and seemed en route to a top-five result until a slight brush with a lapped car caused a puncture.

Given the conditions, it was surprising that only two cars failed to finish – Steve Ellery suffering a hard crash in the wickedly quick turn one, while Paul Weel and Paul Dumbrell limped around to pick up points after assorted woes couldn’t be remedied.

Weel’s teammate Jason Bright was another to lose vital track position from which he was unable to recover.

He was followed home in 14th by Russell Ingall whose pace was inferior in the wet. “I’ll be quite happy if I never race here again!” said the disgruntled SBR pilot.

An eventful race with some different faces up front can’t be bad for the championship which heads offshore to New Zealand, with Steven Richards leading Ambrose, Rick Kelly Murphy, Bargwanna, Bright and Paul Morris in the standings. With two rounds out of 13 down, the likes of Ingall (11th), Skaife (15thl, Lowndes (16thl and Todd Kelly (21st) have a lot of ground to make up.

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