Kelly Racing Heads To Townsville

Greg Murphy To Debut Third Pepsi Max Crew Livery In Townsville

- Greg Murphy will debut the third livery of the season for the Pepsi Max Crew at the Sucrogen Townsville 400 this weekend with yet another striking design set to turn heads.

- The livery is part of the ‘Cool the Burn’ integrated product launch involving two leading brands. Central to the campaign is the simultaneous release of two limited edition flavours – Doritos Burn chili flavoured corn chips and Pepsi Max Ceasefire Lime - which have been specifically designed to work together. Positioned as a collision of extremes, The Doritos Burn chili flavoured corn chips embodies a fiery chili seasoning, which is perfectly complemented by the subtle flavour of Pepsi Max Ceasefire Lime.

- Murphy will celebrate his 400th V8 Supercars Championship race start on Saturday in Townsville, the milestone coming at the Kiwi driver’s 177th V8 Supercar event. Murphy is 10th on the all-time event starts list and equal 10th on all-time race wins list with 28 race victories.

- Stratco Racing driver David Reynolds will carry a message of support for the Queensland Reds in Townsville this weekend. The #16 Stratco Commodore will run special bonnet signage ahead of the Super Rugby Grand Final in Brisbane this weekend, where the Stratco-backed Reds will take on New Zealand side the Canterbury Crusaders.

#11 Pepsi Max Crew: Greg Murphy

Photo by: Chris Von Wieldt

- Reynolds celebrated his 26th birthday yesterday (Sunday), but despite being the youngest of Kelly Racing’s four drivers, he is starting to emerge as arguably the team’s best qualifier. Reynolds has been the fastest Kelly Racing driver in three of the past four qualifying sessions, two of those results in the top 10.

- It has been a busy few weeks for Jack Daniel’s Racing drivers and Kelly Racing co-owners Todd and Rick Kelly. The brothers are judges on the new reality TV show ‘Shannons Supercar Showdown’, which sees 10 young drivers vie for a spot alongside the show’s host Grant Denyer in a Shannons and Mars-backed Kelly Racing Commodore at the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 this October.

- The Townsville street circuit has been a tough venue for Kelly Racing for the past two seasons, but the team is confident of improved pace at the Reid Park circuit this weekend. The team’s engineering direction is vastly different in 2011 to that employed in 2009 and 2010, paying dividends with two race wins and a pole position for Rick Kelly so far this season.

- Kelly Racing has entered endurance co-drivers Owen Kelly (#15 Jack Daniel’s Commodore), David Russell (#7 Jack Daniel’s Commodore) and Tim Blanchard (#16 Stratco Commodore) as potential participants in Practice 1 and 2 on Friday in Townsville.

- Each car will be allocated one set of Dunlop’s soft compound tyre for each race in Townsville, replicating the format for the Sunday race in Darwin last month.

KELLY RACING QUOTEBOARD

GREG MURPHY - #11 Pepsi Max Holden Commodore:

On the third Pepsi Max Crew livery for 2011 …

“With each change, we are bringing something new to the table,” said Greg Murphy.

“Fans have responded really well to each shift and now they’ll have three distinctly different designs to talk about.

“The team is determined to make something of this next round so we’re going to hit the ground running in Townsville looking better than we ever have.”

On making his 400th V8 Supercars Championship race start on Saturday in Townsville …

“It’s a little scary to hear that number come up,” said Greg Murphy.

“It would mean a lot more if I could make it a successful weekend in Townsville and add to the race win and podium columns on my stats sheet.

“I’m lucky to have had some success over the years but I’m still extremely determined to improve on that.

“The sport of V8 Supercars has changed a lot since I first got to drive a Group A touring car in 1995. I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunities I’ve had in the category.

“This year I’m realising how much I still really enjoy it. In some of the hard times you don’t quite appreciate it as much but this year has put the fun back into it and I’m working as part of a great group of people.”

On the Townsville street circuit …

“Townsville is already a bit of a classic,” said Greg Murphy.

“It fits into the Adelaide, Albert Park sort of mould in that it’s a non-permanent race track but once it’s set up and you are driving around it you could swear it was a permanent racing circuit.

“It’s been a huge success for the championship – it’s a blue chip event. I still think it can grow to be even more popular as more people experience it.

“I was blown away at the first event in 2009. The fans up there love the V8 racing and appreciate it.”

DAVID REYNOLDS - #16 Stratco Holden Commodore:

“I’ve raced once in Townsville back in 2009,” said David Reynolds.

“I had good pace in practice and qualifying but the races didn’t pan out the way we would have liked.

“I love the track, the city, the people and it’s honestly one of the best event on the calendar.

“Rick and Todd have struggled there the last two years but the team has changed the cars so much in the last six months that there shouldn’t be anything to worry about too much.

“It could be a case of Townsville going from one of the team’s weakest tracks to one of our strongest.

“I wish the Reds all the best for the Super Rugby Grand Final this weekend. I know everyone at Stratco is really excited to see them in the final and as a team we will be cheering them on this weekend as well.”

TODD KELLY - #7 Jack Daniel’s Holden Commodore:

“Townsville is one of the biggest events on our calendar now and it’s great to get up to northern Queensland to enjoy some warm weather,” said Todd Kelly.

“It’s a fantastic track, extremely challenging and it's extremely hard to get a good car set-up for it’s twisty layout.

“We’ve struggled with Townsville more than any other circuit on the calendar. This year, the things we have done to our cars have us a lot more confident and I’m really looking forward to getting back there and seeing exactly where we end up.

“A lot of the issues we’ve had in general are really enhanced on the Townsville track. We’ve fixed a lot of those problems since we raced there last so our cars should go a lot better there this year.

“Soft tyres are always a bit of a drama for us. We go very well on the hard tyres and we’ve done a lot of work to improve our soft tyre performance.

“In my particular case I didn’t get a chance to use the soft tyre on my Jack Daniel’s Commodore in Darwin. I came into the pits to put the softs on and we had a drama with the wheel nut and it ended our race.

“I’m not sure whether we have completely cured our soft tyre performance problems but Townsville will certainly be a good place to see where we are at with that.

“There’s been a lot of work go into that area of things so we are all very keen to see how much of an improvement we have made.”

RICK KELLY - #15 Jack Daniel’s Racing Holden Commodore:

“We are a little bit nervous about going back to Townsville, but excited at the same time because it’s a great opportunity for us to turn our past results there around,” said Rick Kelly.

“Townsville is one of the best events we go to. It’s similar to Darwin in that the whole town gets behind it, all the locals know we are in town and it’s a warm weather event during our Melbourne winter.

“As a team we need to be careful in Townsville. We had average results there in 2009, where we were around the bottom end of the top 10. That’s not bad, but the podium is where we need to be.

“Heading into Townsville last year we were focused on getting better results and aiming for the podium, but again we struggled for pace compared to our rivals.

“So the entire engineering department has been working hard on Townsville and they are quietly confident that we have a good plan in place for that circuit.

“I’m confident that we have done enough work but you never know for sure until you roll the car out of the truck.

“I want to be on the pace early on in practice, because I’ve only got two short practice sessions in my Jack Daniel’s Commodore as we are in the top half of the championship points.

“That’s only two sessions to turn your form around if you are not on the pace straight away and that only gives you time for five or six small set-up changes.”

On the difference in team’s cars compared to Townsville 2010 …

“There are a lot of changes on our cars compared to last year,” said Rick Kelly.

“Each race we go this year we really can’t look at last year’s set-ups to use as a guide because it just doesn’t relate because our cars are so different now from an engineering perspective.

“Our form has been much stronger this year as a result. Everywhere where we have run hard tyres we have been in the top few, give or take a few occasions. Throwing the soft tyre into the mix sees us struggle a little more but we are working hard on that.

“Townsville will see a lot of hard tyre running but with one set of the soft tyres thrown in for each race.”

On filming reality TV show Shannons Supercar Showdown …

“It’s been a very busy month for us. Basically since we got back from Darwin we have been working day and night on the new reality TV show Shannons Supercar Showdown, which will debut on 7mate on July 23,” said Rick Kelly.

“It’s been a massive learning curve for us having cameras around the team for the past few weeks. Todd and I have been learning our lines and getting to know how a TV show is put together.

“It has meant long hours for us but a lot of fun as well. It’s a big workload but it’s been a huge buzz for the entire team.

“We haven’t lost focus on what we are here for – that is to win races. But we have been putting in a lot of extra hours to ensure that we can balance the TV show filming in with the race team.”

by: Kelly Racing