Todd Kelly has won the final race of the 2007 V8 Supercar Championship Series, holding off a desperate Jamie Whincup and preventing him from claiming the title for Ford.
Kelly sprinted to an early race lead, after championship leader (and eventual winner) Garth Tander was forced to execute his compulsory pit stop later than anticipated.
Despite opening a sizeable margin over second-placed Whincup, Kelly's Holden Racing Team Commodore began to suffer tyre wear, and the gap was reduced by the Ford driver.
However, Kelly managed to hold off Whincup in the dying stages of the race, earning the final win for the year, and allowing Garth Tander to claim the championship for Holden.
“The car was great and we only made small changes through the day. The last race was about 50% looking forward and 50% looking back to see what was going on,” said Kelly.
“Our pit-stops were pretty conservative to avoid trouble and I made up the time on the track.
“The priority was to do a good job for the Team and let the other guys do what they had to do.
“We used our tyres pretty heavily early on, but the others had to use theirs to catch up so it evened itself out - a good day all round.”
Mark Skaife finished the final race in seventh place, pleased with the debut of his new car.
"It's not often you see a new car perform so well out of the box,” he said.
“It was a strong weekend for both Todd and myself with good results on the series points ladder and in the Teams Championship.
“All this is a good pointer for the red team in 2008.”
In his podium speech, Todd Kelly thanked his team for the effort put into his five championship campaigns at the HRT, perhaps providing some merit to the rumours that he will be moving on from Clayton in 2008.
The Holden Racing Team will take a two month break before racing begins again at the Clipsal 500 in February.
![Mark Skaife (centre) sandwiched by Rick and Todd Kelly in Darwin [pic credit: HRT media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/351386.jpg)
