Motorsport: New-look weekend will be tough, says Kelly

Todd Kelly says the revised schedule for this weekend's V8 Supercars event will be the toughest visit to Surfers yet. Photo / Getty Images

SYDNEY - V8 Supercar driver Todd Kelly says this weekend's event on the Gold Coast will be the toughest ever visit to Surfers Paradise for the championship.

Following last weekend's withdrawal by the A1 GP series, V8 Supercars have stepped in to make up the shortfall, proposing an unprecedented four 150km races at the event.

That schedule replaces the original two 200km races at the weekend, meaning the drivers will have to manage an extra 200km of racing on the tight Surfers street circuit.

"Surfers is one of the hardest tracks that we go to, physically and mechanically it's extremely hard on the cars and the brakes," Holden pilot Kelly said.

"With the temperatures, it's quite hard physically, so it will definitely be the hardest race we have done at that track.

"It will sort the fit guys out from the guys that aren't so fit, especially on Sunday."

Kelly, who owns the Jack Daniel's Racing team with brother Rick, says the team's performance at this year's endurance races shows they are on an upward path.

While neither driver is in championship contention, Kelly says the time has come to start getting themselves into podium finishes.

"At Phillip Island and Bathurst we've had a car both Rick and I are extremely happy with," he said.

"If a few things had have gone our way we could have been on the podium and potentially won those races.

"We won our first race in the qualifying race at Phillip Island and we're both extremely happy with where the Jack Daniel's Commodores are at.

"Our goal has shifted quite a lot since prior to the enduros as far as what we expect from ourselves at the track and that's really moved from development and working out what the car needs to going to an event to try and win it."

Not even the heartbreak of a late fade-out at Bathurst, where Rick struggled with a bent rear wing in the dying laps at Mount Panorama to fall from second to an eventual eighth place, has dented the Kellys confidence.

"We're more motivated than ever," Todd said.

"We had a chat with the team last week with all of our guys and all we can do is put Bathurst down as the one that got away.

"We did everything we could on the day and we were good enough to do the job there but we just had way too many things thrown at us that didn't go our way through the day."

- AAP