Interestingly Hidden Valley splits two rounds of the championship which are the predominant testing venues for Holden and Ford teams, as the previous Winton round is home to many of the Victorian-based Commodore outfits and the subsequent round at Willowbank is the home to the majority of Ford teams, which are based in Queensland. It is an important precursor to the long distance Queensland 300 event – which will be the first and only ‘single-drive enduro’ before the main two-driver long distance races in later winter and early spring.
It will also feature the return of Steve Ellery to the V8 Supercar circus as he steps into the driving seat of the #39 Team Sirromet Wines Commodore, replacing Alan Gurr and Fabian Coulthard for the next two events.
It looks highly likely that with the recent drop in form from Stone Brothers Racing, there will be little opposition from Ford as the Holden Racing Team and Toll HSV Dealer Team – the two squads that dominated in Darwin last year – go into this round with a good performance run thus far.
Garth Tander and Rick Kelly currently lead the V8 Supercar Championship, however on adjusted points, Holden Racing Team leader Mark Skaife heads the table. The only driver of the Tom Walkinshaw Performance Group four to have not performed as expected in 2006 is Todd Kelly. After the Clipsal 500, dismal results at Pukekohe, Barbagallo and Winton have truly dented his title hopes. As one of the biggest losers in reverse-grid racing, Kelly will hope his recent successes at Hidden Valley can propel him back inside the winners circle.
“It’s enormously frustrating (failing to finish), but that’s racing. We just can’t seem to take a trick at the moment, our car speed has been good and is just getting better the more we develop the car. But since Clipsal we have had one problem or another that has been out of our control at every single round. It’s time for our luck to change,” said Todd Kelly.
