Kelly targets seasons best in Darwin.
Jack Daniel's Racing's Todd Kelly is targeting a season best sprint round performance when the V8 Supercar series visits Darwin for the SKYCITY Triple Challenge this weekend.
Kelly finished fifth overall at the Clipsal 500 enduro in Adelaide, but his best sprint round result of the season so far is eighth in the Midas 400 at Sandown earlier this month.
His promising two race old Jack Daniel's Commodore has undergone further modifications since then and Kelly expects it to be even faster next time out.
Jack Daniel's Racing's Todd Kelly is targeting a season best sprint round performance when the V8 Supercar series visits Darwin for the SKYCITY Triple Challenge this weekend.
Kelly finished fifth overall at the Clipsal 500 enduro in Adelaide, but his best sprint round result of the season so far is eighth in the Midas 400 at Sandown earlier this month.
His promising two race old Jack Daniel's Commodore has undergone further modifications since then and Kelly expects it to be even faster next time out.
"After a lot of hard work everything's starting to come together for the Jack Daniel's team," he said. "The new Jack Daniel's Old #7 Brand Commodore is a good car; we've qualified in the top tten both times out and would have had a better Sandown result than eighth had we not got turned around in race one.
"We've kept working away and we've got even more new bits for it, so I'm curious to see where we'll stand - if the recent trend continues it'll be better than eighth."
Kelly has a strong record in the Northern Territory having taken back-to-back victories for the Holden Racing Team there in 2004/05, while he also finished fifth last year and fourth overall in 2002.
"Hidden Valley's been both good and bad to me; I've won a couple of times, but I've also had some shockers," he reflected. "I know how to get around the place reasonably quick and we all love going back to Darwin, it's a terrific event with a great atmosphere.
"We don't want to make too much noise about things, but we've been plugging away and I'm going there quietly confident."
Team-mate Shane Price is also excited about the round, the 21-year-old switching to Kelly's previous car, Perkins Engineering chassis #046 which has been updated to new specifications.
"The change of cars is great - it's been a massive effort by everyone at Perkins Engineering to get two new spec cars on track and I couldn't be happier," he said. "Todd and I will now have the same equipment and be able to bounce ideas off each other, so I'm pretty excited about next week.
"I drove the new car at a sponsor ride day and while I didn't get many laps and had passengers alongside it felt a fair bit different. Todd's results show the changes have made the Jack Daniel's Commodores better so I'm looking forward to my chance of moving forward in the championship."