Holden Racing Team Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge report

Press Release

Weather: Sunny, humid 28 degrees
Race 2 (21 laps, 100km)
3rd: Mark Skaife (#2 Holden Commodore VZ)
14th: Todd Kelly (#22 Holden Commodore VZ)
Race notes:
- Mark Skaife started from 3rd placing, Todd Kelly from 31st
- Skaife was beaten to the first vhicane by Rusell Ingall and settled into 4th placing
- On Lap 3, Kelly was nudged by Marcos Ambrose while overtaking Jason Bargwanna but suffered no serious damage
- On Lap 7, Kelly pitted for two rear tyres in a 5-second stop
- On Lap 10, Skaife pitted for two rear tyres in a 4.5-second stop. He emerged in front of Russell Ingall - who had pitted a lap earlier – in 3rd place
- At the end of compulsory pitstops of Lap 12, Kelly was in 20th placing
- At the race end Skaife remained in 3rd placing behind Craig Lowndes and Greg Murphy, while Kelly had improved to 14th placing

Race 3 (21 laps, 100km)
2nd: Mark Skaife (#2 Holden Commodore VZ)
8th: Todd Kelly (#22 Holden Commodore VZ)

Mark Skaife:
“We’ve got a good package to finish off the season with and our luck has been a bit better in the last couple of rounds so I’m looking forward to Tasmania and Phillip Island. It’s been a strong weekend for me and an unfortunate one for Todd so let’s see what happens from here on in.

“It’s such a changeable game and we’ve got six races to go, and race meetings that are going to be tough – at Symmons Plains it will be on for young and old because it will be the tightest grid of the year, there’s always drama down there, and Phillip Island is a place we’ve always done well at. There will also be sone drama down there. It’s a big, fast open circuit where you’ve got to work hard to make the tyres live.”

Todd Kelly:
“I can’t feel too happy about the way we started this weekend, but we finished it off well and limited the damage. To come from the back of the grid after Race 1 and finish 8th by the end isn’t an easy thing to do around this place.

“It’s been a tough weekend all the way around – it was stinking hot inside the car wearing a triple-layer racesuit and full fireproof underwear, and that definitely knocked me around. It was also pretty tough mentally to come back after Race 1 and as a team we’ve done bloody well to put that behind us.

“We’re only 110 points behind Russell Ingall and this weekend shows you how quickly things can change when a few of the key players have a bad round. We’re still in this and so is Mark, so we will be working together to maximise our results and then see what happens.”

Round points:
Mark Skaife 182pts
Todd Kelly 88pts.

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