Todd Kelly condemns V8 driving standards

A string of recent incidents has sparked Nissan Motorsport’s Todd Kelly to hit out at the standard of driving present in the recent rounds of the V8 Supercar championship. The 33 year-old veteran has been a regular visitor in the stewards room this season, however he is appealing for a crackdown on drivers who fail to grant adequate racing room.

Kelly has been unable to match the pace of his Nissan Motorsport team-mates this season, however promising signs were on display in the final race of the weekend where he finished 10th behind his brother and team mate, Rick Kelly. He is currently occupying 24th position in the standings, and the 2003 Bathurst winner is adamant that he was repeatedly pushed off the track whilst running side-by-side with other drivers at the Ipswich 360.

Granting sufficient racing room on the track was far from a priority at Queensland Raceway, contended the V8 Supercar veteran.

“Every race in Queensland at least two or three times when I was side-by-side with blokes they’d just run me straight off the track, and in some cases all four wheels clean off on the exit,” he told Speedcafe. “In every driver’s briefing that we’ve been in that’s been discussed and nothing gets done about it. People just keep doing it. It bloody annoys me and there’s just been too much of it happening.”

The frustrated Victorian believes that, even with a comparative speed disadvantage, drivers are treating his Nissan Altima with contempt.

“What actually annoys me most is that we’re the most vulnerable cars out there and should be the easiest to pass. For a half decent driver, our cars are that slow up the straight that they should be able to tuck in behind us and pass us under brakes,” explained Kelly. “The fact that they’re still nerfing us off the track is bloody ridiculous. They couldn’t have an easier car to pass than what we’ve got at the moment.”

Kelly came under investigation for two separate incidents during the opening sixty-sixty super-sprint race at Queensland Raceway after contact with Russell Ingall and David Wall. An incident also occurred with the latter on the streets of Townsville, where Kelly made contact with Wall’s Wilson Security Racing Commodore whilst attempting to regain a position.

The Nissan Motorsport driver’s best result this year came with his top-10 finish in the final race at Ipswich, however it somewhat papered over the fact that he has only finished in the top-20 in half of this year’s races. He has, however, displayed the outright pace required to warrant his seat within the Nissan Motorsport outfit, having out-qualified all three of his stable-mates on seven occasions this season.

The next stop on the V8 Supercar calendar is Winton Motor Raceway, which is likely to play to the strengths of the underpowered yet agile Altimas. The 33 year-old will be looking to capitalise on the momentum gained in the final leg of the Coates Hire Ipswich 360.