Todd Kelly’s injured shoulder will rule him out of most of Nissan Motorsport’s extensive pre-season testing program.
A training mishap prior to the Bathurst 1000 saw Kelly damage his right shoulder. He underwent surgery in early October and is currently going through various levels of rehabilitation.
At the launch of the Nissan Altima V8 Supercar, Kelly was protecting his recovering shoulder, admitting that the day of the car’s unveiling was the first time that his arm had been out of a sling.
Having already pulled out of the remaining events of this year’s V8 Supercars Championship (replaced by Tim Blanchard), the former Bathurst 1000 winner confirmed to that he will not be fit to drive any V8 Supercar – Holden or Nissan – until at least early February.
This means that Kelly is likely to only get a handful of days in his new Altima before the pre-season test at Eastern Creek (February 16).
“At the moment, it looks like early February until I can hope back in a race car,” Kelly told Speedcafe.com.
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“To take the positive out of that, my race car will have very minimal miles on it when I get to the first round, and Rick (Kelly) will probably have worn his out by that point, figuring out how to tune it and get the most out of it.
“I certainly can’t wait for the next three months to tick over so I can jump in the car and have my first drive of a Nissan V8 Supercar.”
Kelly says that the most frustrating aspect of missing the Nissan’s initial testing is that he will have to watch his brother Rick and his yet-to-be-confirmed team-mates get to conduct all of the testing.
“That’s the most painful part of the shoulder rehabilitation – not being able to jump in the new car and have a drive,” he said.
Track time of the recently-revealed Altima is set to commence soon, with a shakedown planned for this week, followed by a V8 Supercars-controlled aerodynamics test where the Altima will line-up against the Ford Falcon FG and the all-new Holden Commodore VF.
