Bronze for Kelly.

Rick Kelly took his second podium finish of the weekend on Sunday in race 3 of the non-championship Sprint Gas V8 Supercar Manufacturers Challenge at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Kelly, who started the third and final race from third position on the grid, lost a few positions at the start, however an incident between Mark Winterbottom and Jamie Whincup in the early laps of the race bought out the safety car and with both drivers' sidelined he regained the position.

The top order then remained unchanged for the remainder of the race and Rick eventually took not only P3 in race 3, but 'bronze' for the overall event, behind fellow Holden runner Garth Tander (who won all three races) and Ford's Will Davison.

"Actually the heat wasn't too bad today," Rick reflected. "I thought the 20 laps today were going to be a bit tough but Race 1 was probably the most difficult of the weekend.

"The first six laps were quite cool in the car then we got a bit hot and frustrated out there (towards the end), but overall it was a good race.

"There was still a fair bit of action up the front there from some very keen young drivers which ended in tears yet again.

"I saw the accident coming a mile off. I was off the throttle just waiting to see who was going to hit the wall on which side of the track.

"They were just a little bit keen, I think Jamie wanted to be first into turn one and he was obviously driving quite aggressively and Mark was quite defensive, I'm not sure whose fault that was, I was just trying to avoid it."

Asked about the inaugural V8 Supercar Manufacturers Challenge, which Holden won with ease, leading Ford 2012 points to 1568, Rick added that the format was quite interesting.

Indeed Ford turned out to be its own worst enemy and several race incidents involving drivers from its own camp resulted in damage and lost points, effectively ending any chance of a 'Blue Oval' victory in the Manufacturers Challenge.

"It was exciting for us to embrace a new concept and have a good go at that. We haven't had the chance to do that before and it was exciting to see how the drivers reacted," he continued. "We gained a lot of points on the Holden side.

"The Holden drivers reacted quite well to the format, the Ford drivers just fought. There was only one driver that had a good head on his shoulders from Ford from what I understand and that was Will, maybe he should be in a Holden!"