By Matthew Agius
2005 Bathurst champion, Todd Kelly, officially began duties at his new team today when he took control of the #7 Jack Daniel's Racing VE Commodore in a test session at Winton Raceway.
It was his first run in one of the Perkins Engineering prepared cars, after joining JDR last week following five years at the Holden Racing Team.
The Mildura-born driver reportedly completed around one-hundred laps of Winton Motor Raceway outside Benalla and was pleased with his first test for the team.
“It's been a good day – the Jack Daniel's Racing Commodore is a little different to what I am used to, but it's a really good car and I couldn't be more pleased with the test,” he said.
“It's important to understand how Larry's cars work, so we made a lot of suspension changes to let me feel the difference each adjustment makes – and now I've got something to compare.
“We'll merge all the information together to come up with a good race package.”
Kelly joins Jack Daniel Racing after ten years at Walkinshaw Performance assisted teams, including the Holden Racing Team, Kmart Racing and Holden Young Lions.
He will lead the team's 2007 driver, Shane Price, who will compete in his second full season of V8 Supercar racing next year.
Todd Kelly will also re-establish working relationships with JDR team manager, Joe Bremner, and race engineer Barry Ryan.
He stayed with Bremner in England twelve years ago during a racing trip, and Ryan was Kelly's engineer at Kmart Racing.
“Having known Joe and Barry for so long made the transition very easy for us all,” said Kelly.
The 2008 V8 Supercar Championship Series will begin in Adelaide from February 21st.
![Todd Kelly joins Jack Daniel's Racing for 2008 [pic credit: Holden Motorsport]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/400877.jpg)
