History on Kelly’s side in bold Bathurst bash
Larry’s livery tribute to three-time champ
RICK Kelly will pay tribute to Larry Perkins’s famous trio of Bathurst victories from the 1990s as he strives to convert his strongest Nissan form yet to Mount Panorama success.
Marking the 25th anniversary of Perkins’s 1993 triumph — the first of his three Bathurst crowns — Kelly will adopt the racing great’s famous livery for his attack on the mountain next week.
Perkins won the Bathurst 1000 in 1993, 1995 and 1997, with Kelly drawing inspiration from those victories in a bid to climb back on the podium for the first time since 2006.
“It’s a pretty impressive thing to arrive at Bathurst with such a successful livery at that track,’’ Kelly said. “That was an iconic livery for motorsport in Australia in the ’90s.
“For me running this livery is a special thing, but hopefully we can also make it a little bit more famous for a win on our car as well.’’
The tribute also has a deeper meaning, with the Kelly squad — now Nissan Motorsport — born out of the old Perkins Engineering team.
Rick and Todd Kelly took over the Perkins operation in 2009 and still have some of the same crew that worked with the six-time Bathurst champion, who was also a three-time winner as a co-driver in the 1980s.
“We took over a lot of Larry’s stuff and the facilities 10 years ago and we still have a lot of those staff there,’’ Kelly said. “In fact, the guy that built the engine for that exact car in the ’90s works for us and built the engine for my car for Bathurst this year.’’
Kelly, who tasted Bathurst success partnering Greg Murphy in 2003 and 2004, sits seventh in the Supercars standings. If he can hold, or improve, his position, it will be his best championship result in a Nissan since finishing ninth in 2015.
“Our form this year has been the best that we’ve ever had in a Nissan as well so we’re heading to Bathurst not as the hot favourites but certainly in a position to be stronger than we’ve been in the last few years,’’ Kelly said.
“Bathurst is a race that you can win on the day, the championship is a little bit harder if you haven’t got the package. But Bathurst as we all know, you can start last and finish first and there are so many things that can happen on the day that it is anyone’s race.’’