Kelly sweats new ride

RICK Kelly is sweating on his team’s switch to the Ford Mustang delivering the competitive car he has been craving. But the Supercars veteran admits Kelly Racing is still in a fight against time to make sure its new Ford package is race-ready for the seasonopener in Adelaide next week. As Kelly unveiled his 2020 Mustang at Federation Square in Melbourne on Monday, the two-time Bathurst 1000 winner said the team was working “day and night” to get the car prepped for a shakedown this week. After completing the inhouse build of its Ford engine last week, the machinery is with the Supercars technical team in Queensland for verification and testing. The team hopes to complete a shakedown at Winton tomorrow – just six days before the pre-season test day at Tailem Bend, with first practice for the Adelaide 500 two days later. “The guys were working through the weekend and day and night to get it to a point where we can hopefully achieve that (shakedown) this week,” Kelly said. “The first engine that we’ll homologate is in Brisbane and then it will go through a series of tests with the category up there to see where it sits compared to everyone else. “While that’s happening we are finishing the final build on the two Mustangs to be taken to the track to do a systems check and make sure the car operates OK and then from there we head to Tailem Bend for the official test. “It’s probably going to be a bit of a trial and error start to the year.” After seven years racing a Nissan Altima, Kelly Racing announced after Bathurst last year it was switching to the championship-winning Ford.