Rick Kelly out to repeat V8 Supercars history at Eastern Creek

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Rick Kelly out to repeat V8 Supercars history at Eastern Creek

Rick Kelly out to repeat V8 Supercars history at Eastern Creek

22/08/2012

Rick Kelly is making a return to Red Bull HQ next week but first the V8 Supercars driver will deploy his Kelly Racing Commodore on Eastern Creek - the venue of his very first championship win.
Now named Sydney Motorsport Park after a $12million refurbishing and resurfacing last year, the popular Sydney circuit is largely an unknown. Only 17 of the current crop of drivers, including Rick and his brother Todd, have raced on the former international circuit.
But that isn't expected to be an advantage, with adjustments to the track and a complete resurfacing making it largely a brand new track. It's the first time the circuit has been part of the championship in four years.
Some drivers are predicting the current official lap record, which stands at 01.31.73, could be smashed by as much as three seconds.
"The right-left approach into turn six has been replaced with a straight, providing another potential passing area... and guaranteed are faster lap times than ever before," he said as part of his pre-race analysis for News.
"Sydney Motorsport Park, with its unique mix of slow, medium and high-speed corners and a long main straight presents a new challenge to the drivers.
"For me, Sydney Motorsport Park brings back a lot of great memories with my first solo win. It's a track with a lot of history, so it is exciting to be going back there. It has a great mix of corners and puts a lot of loading on your tyres, so you need a car that carries good mid-corner speed and also looks after its tyres."
While corner run-off areas have been widened by as much as three metres to allow for safer and even fater driving, the 2007 series champion still says that passing will be tough on the ciruit. Then there's the fact that teams only have one set of soft tryes for each of the two races - one Saturday, one Sunday. That means tyre life will be moe crucial than ever with the soft tyres up to one seconds a lap quicker than the longer-lasting hard tyre.
"There is a lot of single-file running unless you're pretty aggressive to try and pass as the circuit flows from left to right and because of all the surface changes it will be difficult to set up for," Rick said.
"The speeds vary from just 72km/h in turn eight to 270km/h at the end of the front straight. The fans in the grandstand will enjoy seeing the cars brake into turn one as they are going so fast. It's one of my favourite spots to watch when I'm not driving."
With just the two sets of softs, Saturday's qualifying session will literally be a one-lap shoot-out as drivers look to post the quickest time possible without damaging their tyres for the race. And given
Kelly Racing's knowledge of the track and straight-line speed, a pinch of luck could see them pull off a shock upset in qualifying and qualify at the point end of the grid at the expense of the faster teams.
Race one will commence at 4pm on Saturday and can be seen live on Channel Seven, with Sunday's race to begin at 3.30pm. Tickets are still available for the race.

Red Bull Australia