Kelly Racing expects to have its work cut out at Phillip Island although team manger Scott Sinclair says the squad is closer to unlocking the Nissan Altima’s 2019 aero package.
The Braeside squad has made a slow start to the campaign as it bids to understand the fourth iteration of the car’s aero package after undergoing changes to the front splitter and gurney flap.
After eight races, a solitary top 10 finish courtesy of Andre Heimgartner at Albert Park is the squad’s best result.
Symmons Plains proved to be another frustrating round with Rick Kelly’s 15th from 11th on the grid in Race 8 its highlight from the two races, where Supercars enacted centre of gravity changes that have benefitted the Nissan.
This weekend sees the team head to Phillip Island, the scene of a double podium for Kelly 12 months ago.
Despite the form shown last year, Sinclair says there is no silver bullet in understanding the latest aero package which could make Phillip Island a challenging round.
“The grand prix was only a couple of weeks ago and it’s a similar sort of track to that,” Sinclair told Speedcafe.com.
“We will have our work cut out, there’s no doubt about, that but at the same time, I think what we’ve learnt from the last two weekends is really positive and we are looking forward to rolling out there and learning more.
“We know there is no silver bullet, we know we’re going to have to grind it out, but we’re certainly closer now than we were two or three weeks ago.
“We are getting there, but the competition is as tough as ever, so we might make a small gain and someone else makes a bigger gain, so it keeps going around in circles but we’ll keep pushing.”
Kelly Racing’s weekend in Tasmania was hampered by a number of mechanical and electrical dramas.
Kelly’s Castrol backed entry underwent an engine change while an issue rendered Heimgartner effectively absent from qualifying on Saturday.
Garry Jacobson was forced to retire from Sunday’s race with an electrical problem.
Sinclair says has identified the cause of the problems and will address them before Phillip Island.
“It was (a concern) but we know what that is and we’ll fix that, that’s going to be no problem to fix, it was similar across all the cars,” Sinclair added.
“So while frustrating, especially for Andre who did not get to qualify because of it, we hopefully know what that is and there’s an easy fix for that.”
The WD-40 Phillip Island SuperSprint is scheduled to begin on Friday.
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