Todd Kelly says he feels the accident that ruled Jamie Whincup out of the Hamilton 400 – and cost the Team Vodafone man the V8 Supercar Championship points lead – never needed to happen and has hit out at his Ford rival.
The incident happened during the second phase of the qualifying session after Kelly ran slightly wide onto the kerb at the exit of turn seven. As he then attempted to bring the Jack Daniels Racing back under control, Kelly inadvertently tagged the rear of the Vodafone Falcon which speared Whincup into the wall on the outside of the track; the car then spinning back across the circuit and impacting with the inside wall.
Kelly was initially found guilty of careless driving but took part in race one under appeal to finish eighth. With the appeal upheld, he took 19th and 15th in the final two races of the weekend but it was the qualifying incident that disappointed him most.
"So much happened this weekend that it would fill a novel!" he said. "My impression of the incident with Jamie is that [the crash] didn't need to happen. I went into that corner hot, made a mistake and ran wide. The kerb on the exit is the most slippery of all time and the wall comes out on the exit, so you don't want to be hanging around out there.
"I was just trying to get back onto the track and Whincup just came out on the racing line and gave me absolutely no room. That's the end of the story. After that it was a hell of a day; I was in the Stewards' Room right up until 15 minutes before race one and they gave me the 'not guilty' decision an hour after the race, so was tough and trying.
"We had so many things to wrong, but we moved up two spots in the championship which I don't know how we did that. But, the car's been really good and that's promising. I think we're close to having a top ten car – we didn't have that in Adelaide, at Eastern Creek or the Grand Prix – and while there's still work to do the signs are there for good things. We've got really good car setup to start the meeting with in Perth, so hopefully we'll have a better weekend."
