Todd Kelly drives for Jack Daniel’s
V8 Supercar driver Todd Kelly will link with Larry Perkins’ Jack Daniel’s Racing in 2008 after his split from the Holden Racing Team.
In doing so, Kelly has passed up a chance to defect to Ford, and a potential place with the Toll-HSV Dealer Team alongside his brother Rick.
“I am genuinely happy with this,” Kelly said yesterday.
He rejected suggestions he has been made a scapegoat for HRT’s failings over the past two years.
“I beat (teammate Mark) Skaife for the past five years in the championship. I had three pole positions this year,” he said.
“One of my goals will be to finish further up pitlane than HRT. But it’s not entirely that. I want to be the best driver I can be.”
He is confident he will be more competitive with Perkins, where he will be the No. 1 driver with youngster Shane Price as his teammate.
He did not say it, but Kelly believes he will do better once he steps out of Skaife’s shadow at Team Red.
“I don’t think I’ve been the best driver I could be at HRT. I was looking to get more out of myself. Larry’s team is ideal,” Kelly said.
He has been eased aside to clear space for Garth Tander, who won the V8 Supercar championship on Sunday, but rejected any suggestion he was dumped.
“I had been there for 10 years. It’s good timing. I would probably have been interested in having a change of scenery anyway,” Kelly said.
“This has been a good chance to do a full review of my performance. I had the chance to move to Queensland, the chance to move to Ford.”
Instead, he spent more than a day looking at Perkins’ operation at Moorabbin before signing on Tuesday night.
“In this environment, I reckon I can get a lot more out of myself. I can actually spend every day in the workshop looking at the car and coming up with ideas to go faster,” Kelly said.
Told in the week before the final round of the V8 Supercar series that he would be moving out of HRT, Kelly said it was an emotional time.
“I’m pretty passionate about HRT, and loyal. It was hard at PhillipIsland over the weekend because I knew that was going to be my last race with the team,” he said.
“It was pretty sad to line up for the last time. Just driving around on the cool-down lap and looking at the dash, looking around the cabin, and thinking it was the last time I would drive an HRT car. That was pretty sad.
“Walking into the new team and seeing the enthusiasm was great. The new challenge has got my complete focus.”
Kelly, 28, has been racing V8 Supercars since 1999 and has had 18 race and nine round wins from 106 starts, including victory at Bathurst in 2005.
He has been in the top 10 drivers for each of his seven full-time seasons.
Perkins talked up his new team leader yesterday.
“He’s someone who can contribute to the team and its performance, both on and off the track, and he’s excited about working with us. I think he’ll fit in perfectly,” Perkins said.
Kelly showed his honesty when he talked of how he got started through a junior development program with Team Red that was organised by then team manager Jeff Grech and company chiefs John Crennan and Tom Walkinshaw.
“I was 16 when I first met Jeff, now I’m 28. I started there packing T-shirts in plastic bags and then got promoted to sweep the floor at HRT. And that was the best day of my life,” Kelly said.
“I’m thankful to Tom because I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing now without it.”
Kelly has only signed a one-year deal with Perkins and is open about the reason.
“I just wanted to do 12 months,” he said.
“I told Larry if I was not happy after a year I could go, and if he thought I was a boofhead or not performing he could let me go.
“I reckon that’s the fairest way to do it.”