After a tough start to the weekend at Surfers Paradise, Rick Kelly clawed his way back into the reckoning in the final race of the weekend to remain in contention for the V8 Supercar title.
Kelly had suffered an accident during practice when he spun and was collected by the HRT Holden of Mark Skaife but bounced back in the opening race of the weekend with a seventh place finish. However, things then went wrong in the second race when a stuck throttle forced him to take a trip down an escape road and left him only able to finish down in 16th place.
The action packed final race saw only 16 drivers still running when the chequered flag dropped, but the defending champion was amongst them in sixth place – helping him to secure a valuable 23 points from the weekend to remain in touch with the points leaders.
"I guess we are lucky to come through and get a few points out of a weekend that was full of dramas for us," he said. "Obviously, it started with the accident in practice and then a tyre situation and then a stuck throttle in race two.
"To get through all that was quite good, and we are lucky to come away with that many. Going on the aggressive driving shown up the front today, we are still in it by a long shot."
![Rick Kelly - Toll HSV Holden Commodore [pic credit: Toll HSV media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/294494.jpg)
