A contract renewal for Michael Caruso remains unsigned as Nissan Motorsport works to finalise its 2014 sponsorship package.
The team’s four car line-up has long been expected to remain unchanged for next season, with team owner/drivers Todd and Rick Kelly again joined by James Moffat and Michael Caruso.
The team signed a new multi-year deal with Moffat in August, but is yet to formally move on Caruso, who was one of the hottest properties on the driver market when moving from Garry Rogers Motorsport last year.
Moffat and Caruso currently compete in the colours of new-for-2013 sponsor Norton, while the Kelly brothers continue under long-time team partner Jack Daniel’s.
The latter signed a multi-year agreement with the team in late 2012, while Norton is on one-year deal, but has backed Moffat since 2009.
“We’re rapt with the whole line-up that we’ve got this year, all four of us get along like a house on fire and push each other on the track,” Todd Kelly told Speedcafe.com of Caruso.
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“Michael’s done everything that we could have hoped for, so certainly we want to hang onto him, but you really just can’t go and lock any one particular thing in on a car unless you’ve got the whole situation nutted out.
“We need to make sure that we’ve got all of our sponsors and everything signed off and once we’re happy that we can commit to that then we’re full steam ahead to lock him away.”
Caruso expects that the situation will be resolved in the weeks after Bathurst.
“Obviously we need to firm everything up,” he told Speedcafe.com.
“The team are keen to keep me here and I’m happy to stay here as well, so after this weekend, everything will start to I guess calm down.
“It’s no different up and down pit lane, we’ve seen a lot of the chat with other drivers, no one wants to rush into things before Bathurst because it’s so busy and you need to prepare.”
Caruso currently sits 22nd in the points standings, some nine places behind team leader Rick Kelly.
While the season to date has been difficult, Caruso hopes to reap the benefits from this year’s hard work in 2014.
“We knew it was going to be a tough year, I guess as a driver you think that it’s going to improve quickly,” he said.
“You know the team have been working very hard, I like the people here and it’s all going really well.
“We just need to continue to work. We’re slowly seeing that progression now, you know, towards this back half of the year.
“The cars are improving and I think everyone in pitlane knows that once we get horsepower and fuel economy, we’re as good a chance as anyone else to win races.
“It’s just a matter of getting those two things right I can’t see why we won’t be winning here. It’s a matter of getting that as good as we can.”
Caruso is teamed with Daniel Gaunt for the Pirtek Enduro Cup, with the pair sporting retro Nissan race suits at Bathurst to celebrate the marque’s return to Mount Panorama after a 21 year absence.
See below for a Nissan Motorsport video from Wednesday at Bathurst
