HSV Dealer Team pairing Rick Kelly and Paul Dumbrell will hope to bounce back from a tough time at Bathurst as the V8 Supercar Championship heads to the Gold Coast for the latest round of the season.

Kelly, the 2006 championship winner, slipped back to eighth position in the points table after the Bathurst round is now focused on ending the season strongly with his thoughts no longer on the championship crown.

“Not being in contention for the championship this year gives me a chance to enjoy the racing a little more and put everything into winning each weekend as it comes,” he said. “We don't have Championship position to worry about so we can focus on good results and not let the pressure of trying to win get in our way.

“I am actually looking forward to heading up there this weekend, the Indy circuit is one I really enjoy and street circuits tend to produce some tough racing.”

Kelly will revert back to the car he was driving for the first five rounds of the year, with the chassis that debuted at Darwin involved in a major incident at Bathurst.

“I am heading up to Indy in my old car, it has been a car I have been very comfortable with and has given us a lot of good results in the past” Kelly commented. “Driving the older chassis certainly isn't an issue for us.

“Our best bet now is to try and learn as much as we can about the car so we can put a plan together as far as working towards next year.”

Dumbrell qualified on the second row of the grid at Bathurst in one of his best qualifying performances to date and he said he needed to match that this weekend on the challenging Surfers Paradise circuit if he is to take a good result home from the weekend.

“To be quick at Bathurst all weekend and qualify on the front two rows was a confidence boost,” he said. “You can't rest on your laurels, Bathurst was last week and this week is a different race. We just have to make sure we apply the same principles we did for the last round and we should get a reasonable result.

“The biggest thing we have to focus on is qualifying on up the front, which has been our downfall in the mid part of the year but with the great qualifying result last round, now is a good opportunity to get that right.”