Rick Kelly helped Holden to secure honours in the opening race of the V8 Supercar Manufacturers' Challenge with a third place finish in the opening race of the weekend in Melbourne.
The HSV Dealer Team driver had started the race from third on the grid but he almost lost out on the opening lap because of an incident between Ford pairing Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards which left him suffering some damage to his car.
A late Safety Car period left the field with a two-lap dash to the flag and meant Kelly had little time to challenge either Garth Tander or Will Davison ahead as he settled for the final place on the podium.
“We haven't been on the podium or in a press conference since the later parts of last year, it's good to be back and also for our team confidence at the moment,” he said. “I was a little bit disappointed not to have got to second today. I think a few incidents on the track hurt our track position and I am a little disappointed with some of the driving out there that caused our car to be damaged in an incident early in the race.”
“All in all, a good race for the guys. It puts us in third position again to start the race tomorrow and hopefully we can move that one step forward.”
“We certainly were lucky to avoid a race ending incident and at that point, the move that happened out there with some of the guys was a little unnecessary, we were lucky to avoid a serious incident but unlucky to drop to third place out of it.”
“We will make a few tweaks tonight but our car was pretty strong in the first few laps of the race. With our tweaks, we will try to make it last a little longer than it did. At the moment our confidence is good and we are showing we are a definite force.”
Team-mate Paul Dumbrell was on the receiving end of a tyre barrier that was flung into the air after being hit by another driver, although he survived to take the flag in 19th position.
![Rick Kelly - HSV Dealer Team [Pic credit: Holden Motorsport]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/417020.jpg)
