Although unable to set the outright pace during testing in Bahrain, Toll HSV Dealer Team pairing Rick Kelly and Garth Tander say they remain quietly confident of finding a strong race pace going into the Desert 400.
Defending champion Kelly and championship contender Tander were sixth and 11th fastest respectively in Thursday's practice at the Middle Eastern grand prix circuit, but both say they can wring more speed out of their cars for Friday qualifying and the first of three races.
Kelly's fastest lap in practice was 1m 25.73s, which put him some four-tenths of a second off the fastest lap set by Ford driver Mark Winterbottom, but the defending champion remains confident going into qualifying and the opening race on Friday.
“We made good gains through the session, and even after we had done our fast run, we found a couple of gains,” he said. “The car feels like it is going to be quite good in the race. Last year, Garth had a really good race car and so did we to an extent, and it feels like it is going to lbe ike that again. The outright speed isn't quite there yet."
Like most drivers in the field, Tander set his quickest lap – 1m 25.93s – on his second set of ‘green' tyres, but he admitted to not getting the levels of grip he had expected.
“We had a good car early in the session, I think,” he said. “We have got a pretty good race car, but the car certainly didn't grip up on that second set of tyres at the end there. So, we have a few things to look at tonight.
“I think we will qualify further up tomorrow and we will have a good race car, but we need to qualify in the first couple of rows to stay out of trouble.”
