Nathan Pretty, Scott Bargwanna, Jonny Reid, David Sera and Amber Anderson all tested a Kelly Racing Commodore VE at Winton Raceway yesterday.
The five drivers all got to sample the ex-Hi Tec Oils Commodore, last raced by Mark McNally for the team last year. The car (PE046) has been completely rebuilt in the off-season and painted plain black.
The test was to evaluate potential endurance drivers for the four Kelly Racing Commodores of Todd Kelly, Rick Kelly, Jason Bargwanna and Tony Ricciardello.
New Zealander Reid, who has spent the past season racing Porsches in the NZ GT3 Championship, has only made one V8 Supercars start before and is keen to get back in the game.
“Heading home from the Grand Prix, I got a phone call from Barry Ryan (Jack Daniel’s Racing team manager) who asked if I wanted to come test,” he said.
“It’s been a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I’ve had minimal laps in a V8. I think the switch to Porsche has set me up well for my future endeavours in V8 Supercars racing. I’ve learnt a lot today and there’s a hell of a lot more to come.”
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Anderson, regularly seen driving the V8 Supercars Safety Car, has had a number of drives of V8s in the past, but is always grateful to get more laps.
“They’re a big powerful car, the V8s, and a big jump for me in the learning stakes,” she said.
“With 600hp, it behaves a lot different to some of the other things I’ve driven, but it was a blast.”
Kelly Racing is yet to finalise its endurance driver line-up.
Check out ‘The Kelly Telly’ YouTube video that was posted from the test last night …
