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Kelly Racing has made changes within its engineering department ahead of the 2011 V8 Supercars Championship.
Three of the Victorian-based team’s four cars will enter the new year with an all-new driver/engineer line-up, with new recruit David Reynolds having experienced racer/engineer James Small calling his shots.
Last year, Small worked on Todd Kelly’s #7 Jack Daniel’s Racing Commodore. This year, Brendan Hogan has been promoted into that position, working alongside Kelly.
Stuart McDonald, who worked with Jason Bargwanna last year, will serve as Race Engineer for Kelly Racing’s #11 Holden Commodore, expected to be driven by Greg Murphy. Details of that entry will be confirmed later this month ahead of the season launch test day at Eastern Creek in Sydney, New South Wales on January 29.
The only stable driver/engineer combination remaining from 2010 is that of Rick Kelly and David Swenson. Swenson continues his role as Head of Race Engineering as well as race-day engineer for Rick’s #15 Jack Daniel’s Commodore.
The team has also secured the services of experienced engineer Ryan Webb to head the role of Engine Research & Development Engineer – a new position within the team.
Webb brings with him a decade of experience in a similar role at the Walkinshaw Racing operation. He will work closely with Engine Department Manager Shaun Hockey, who has two decades worth of experience from Perkins Engineering and subsequently Kelly Racing.
Team owner Todd Kelly says that the addition of Webb and the overall structure of the Engineering Department will make Kelly Racing a stronger outfit in 2011.
“This year the whole team is really starting to come together and both garages have an extremely high calibre of people,” said Todd.
“Where we sit now is really how we envisaged the team being when we started.
“To get a group of people together and build race cars and work well together across all 14 departments is one thing, but to be competitive as a race team on the track is another.
“You need the key people in the right places to put all those pieces together so we have now been able to invest more in those key personnel.
“We have Ryan Webb, a highly respected engine designer and engineer, joining us this year from over at Clayton. Getting Ryan onboard is a big coup for our team and we’re really happy with our engineering line-up for 2011.
“The whole place is starting to come together. The vision we have had of Kelly Racing being one of the biggest and best teams in the country is gradually starting to become a reality.”
