“The first choice is to win the race, but if that’s not going to happen, we need to avoid mistakes and gather up a bag of points towards the championship. Driving with Todd will be good.
“It is a little bit different for a lot of reasons. You tend to get into a comfort zone,” said Todd Kelly.
“To bolt on a black tee-shirt and to get into a different car and to walk into different truck and garage and to pull up at a different boom is all a little bit different. All this came up pretty quick – this is not something we planned at the start of the year. But we are all on top of it now and starting to feel more and more at home each day and can’t wait to jump into a car and get stuck into it with Rick.”
The lead Holden Racing Team Commodore, the second part of the HRT/Toll equation, is the favourite this weekend. However both drivers Mark Skaife and Garth Tander are keen to take a solid result from the weekend.
“Commodore #2 will be a strong contender on the weekend as it has been all year,” said Skaife.
“Garth and I did plenty of laps at last week’s Winton test and we’ve got seating and comfort organised to suit both of us. The car was spot on and this should translate to Sandown.”
“Mark and I have been in the game for a good while now and we know what is expected,” Tander added.
“Neither of us is worried about number one status as we will fulfill certain roles in the make up of the team with whatever changeable weather is thrown into the mix as the weekend progresses. I enjoy Sandown and love racing at a place we don’t visit very often. There’s always plenty going on with the likelihood of interesting results.”
The Betta Electrical 500 Melbourne will get underway on Friday afternoon with practice, before qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday.
