Jack Daniel's Racing saves best til last in NZ

Jack Daniel's Racing driver Rick Kelly saved his best result from V8 Supercar's New Zealand journey until the last race of the weekend, with a strong eighth place result in his Nissan Altima at Pukekohe Park Raceway.

The 200km feature event of the weekend ran safety car free, with Kelly able to advance from his 10th starting position, and claim a solid haul of points after overcoming some stout competition.

The result for Rick sees him climb to 16th in the season standings after 13 races. Todd Kelly meanwhile endured a tough outing, after starting from ninth position for the third successive race.

A drive through penalty for pit lane speeding saw Todd drop a lap to the race leaders, before crossing the finishing line in 24th place.

The V8 Supercars Championship continues at Barbagallo Raceway from May 16 to 18 with the Perth 400.

RICK KELLY - #15 Jack Daniel's Racing Nissan Altima:
Qualifying Race 13- 10th
Race 13- 8th

"It's good that we managed a better result today because it was for triple points compared to the other races," said Rick Kelly.

"It was a pretty strong car today, we didn't quite get the strategy as good as hoped, but we ran up the front and had really strong race pace.

"For us it's a step further forward, I just need to do an even better job in qualifying and put us a little further forward.

"Really, that's the only thing that held us back from getting to spray champagne, and that for us is really exciting.

"It's a step forward, and we definitely had the potential there to be up as high as probably third with that race package.

"We can be happy with that, that does really prove that Nissan Motorsport has made a good leap forward in the last couple of rounds, and we have been able to capitalise on it, particularly with Michael (Caruso's) fifth position.

"We can take a lot away from that, and we've just got to put our head down and not make any errors, and just put a clean weekend together."

Jack Daniel's Racing