Todd Kelly - #7 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore:

QUESTION: The crash today was not ideal but the crew did another great job to fix the car in time for you to do some laps in Meeting Rides.

"We were tracking along pretty well until we hit the fence and it's a shame that it ended our day short, because the track obviously kept getting more and more rubber on it as people put better and better tyres on.

"It's certainly going to make it a bit harder to go straight into qualifying now but we're confident that we had a reasonably good car.

"Hopefully people haven't made too many improvements - we'll certainly find out tomorrow."

QUESTION: Meeting Rides were obviously not at full pace but did it give you a bit more confidence to get the #7 Jack Daniel's Commodore back out there before the end of the day?

"It was just good to get back in the Jack Daniel's Commodore and do a few easy laps before I sleep on it.

"The last thing you want to do is go to bed and the last thing that you've done is fire it into the fence.

"So I've had a few laps to start visualising the track tonight and do a better job tomorrow.

"I just got caught out and lost the rear going over the crest at that corner, I clipped the tyres and around she went and it did a fair bit of damage to the front suspension."

QUESTION: You're in the team's spare car for the Sydney Telstra 500. Does it feel much different and do you think it will be a competitive package.

"It's just a little bit different on the inside with the seating position and the way it's laid out internally is a bit different.

"So there are things that you see that make you feel a little bit different and make you feel like you're in a different car.

"But the way the car handles and behaves it very similar. We've put a lot of the same running gear that I had in the car at the previous event into it for Sydney, so it was pretty good out there."

Rick Kelly - #7 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore:

QUESTION: What are your impressions of the Sydney Olympic Precinct street circuit after day one at the Sydney Telstra 500?

"To be honest I reckon it's awesome," said Rick Kelly.

"I liked the Townsville track when I looked at it but when we actually drove on it the track didn't stand out as much as I thought it would in terms of being fun to drive, although it was an absolutely fantastic event.

"Here, we looked at the track and thought 'I don't know how enjoyable this track is going to be' but it really was great out there today.

"I had a ball out there.

"Again today we suffered from a couple of things, one was the tyres we ran as we ran the same set all day just to ensure that we had adequate tyres for the races.

"You only get four new sets for 500 kilometre of racing, which is not enough for us, so we've saved our tyres.

"So to be 14th on one set of tyres all day is pretty good and I'm happy with that.

The other thing that hindered us is that they kept throwing red flags to change the track configuration with tyre bundles, so that cost us a little bit of time.

"All in all we're pretty happy. I've done my best time on old tyres and the Jack Daniel's Commodore was pretty responsive to changes for tomorrow.

"So far, so good."

QUESTION: When you are learning a new track do you really see a lot of improvement throughout the first day or do you get up to speed as drivers within the first few laps?

"It depends on the track. Normally you get up to speed pretty quickly but with that last change we made on the car, it was a little bit nicer but I went seventh tenths of a second quicker, which is massive.

"The change was not worth seventh tenths of a second. It's just the sort of track that if you pull your finger out and have a red-hot go you will get a better result.

"In a lot of places on the track you can really out-drive the car and that's what I like. It's definitely a lot of fun like that and if I had taken more risks we would have got another time chunk out of it.

"So it's going to be good racing and there will be cars in the fence and cars that are considerably quicker just because of the guys that are driving them."

KEY FACTS:

- Kelly brothers have a sensational record of form in season finales ...

* Todd Kelly was the overall winner of the 2001 season finale at Sandown

* Todd Kelly also won the 2006 season finale at Phillip Island and was second at Phillip Island to finish the 2007 season

* Rick Kelly was the winner of the final event last season at Oran Park and was third overall at the 2005 season finale at Phillip Island

- Todd Kelly switches chassis for Sydney Telstra 500 ...

* Todd Kelly will be driving a different chassis at the Sydney Telstra 500. Kelly's usual chassis (Chassis No PE049) was extensively damaged in a crash with Lee Holdsworth in the Sunday race in Perth

* Kelly will now drive the team's spare chassis, PE045, which made its V8 Supercar debut at the start of the 2007 season, with much of the running gear (front and rear suspension, gearbox, differential, engine, seat, pedal box) from Kelly's usual car transferred over to the spare car for this weekend

* Kelly Racing chassis PE045 was last driven by Jack Perkins at the Nikon SuperGP on the Gold Coast and has raced at three events this season (L&H 500 at Phillip Island, Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama and Nikon SuperGP on the Gold Coast)

- Sydney Telstra 500 a special race for many reasons...

* This weekend's Sydney Telstra 500 marks the final event of the inaugural season of Kelly Racing, with the team showing in recent races that they will be a force to be reckoned with in 2010

* The Sydney Telstra 500 is also the home race for Jack Daniel's ... and no we are not racing in Lynchburg, Tennessee! The Australian head office of Brown-Forman, owners of the Jack Daniel's brand, is situated on Parkview Drive in Homebush, less than 500 metres from the circuit

2009 V8 Supercar Championship Series
Points Standings after Race 24 of 26
1. Jamie Whincup 3175
2. Will Davison 2894
3. Garth Tander 2766
4. Craig Lowndes 2544
5. Steven Johnson 2177
6. Mark Winterbottom 2147
7. Rick Kelly 2078
8. James Courtney 1988
9. Lee Holdsworth 1886
10. Russell Ingall 1871
17. Todd Kelly 1561
26. Jack Perkins 993
30. Mark McNally 512

SYDNEY TELSTRA 500 DETAILS:

Circuit: Homebush Street Circuit
Location: Homebush, Sydney, New South Wales
Circuit Length: 2.415 kilometres
Format: 250km race Saturday and Sunday
2009 is debut event

 

WEEKEND SCHEDULE
All times are local Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time

Friday 4 December 2009
12:35pm - 1:10pm: Practice - Part A
1:25pm - 2:15pm: Practice - Part B
2:55pm - 3:45pm: Practice - Part C

Saturday 5 December 2009
10:00am - 10:20am: Qualifying - Leg 1
10:25am - 10:40am: Qualifying - Leg 2
10:55am - 11:25am: Top 10 Shootout
2:35pm: Race 1 (Series Race 25) - 74 laps

Sunday 6 December 2009
10:30am - 10:50am: Qualifying (for Race 2)
2:35pm: Race 2 (Series Race 26) - 74 laps

TELEVISION SCHEDULE - SEVEN NETWORK
Times subject to amendment - please check local guides.

Saturday 5 December 2009
1:00pm - 2:00pm AEDST (Support Categories)
2:00pm - 5:00pm AEDST (V8 Supercars)

Sunday 6 December 2009
1:00pm - 2:00pm AEDST (Support Categories)
2:00pm - 5:00pm AEDST (V8 Supercars)

Saturday 12 December 2009
1:00pm - 2:00pm AEDST (V8 XTRA Season Review)