Bargwanna makes Kelly Racing debut

Jason Bargwanna has had his first drive of a Kelly Racing Holden Commodore V8 Supercar at the team's end-of-season ride day at Winton Motor.

Bargwanna, who was the overall event winner at Winton in both 1999 and 2000, piloted Kelly Racing chassis PE047 during the day, getting around 100 laps of track time while performing passenger rides.

The car carried an interim testing livery on the day, with more details on Bargwanna's entry at Kelly Racing to be announced at a later date.

"I was very excited to actually get a taste for the car, how it drives and just see how it is that they go about getting the cars right and being competitive and I was very impressed with package so far," he said."What impressed me the most is the way the guys all work together, the communication level. It's fantastic and I really think that this is certainly a team that's got the credibility to do the job.

"I think over the day I've done probably 100 laps in terms of rides. Obviously it's hard to evaluate the cars with a passenger on board but my initial impression is that they're impressive and that they'll be competitive. The engine impresses me and there are a couple of different little things with the front geometry which seem to make the car work quite well so I'm really looking forward to having a proper attack at it."

Brothers Todd and Rick Kelly were also behind the wheel at Winton today, sharing driving duties in chassis PE045 to give Bargwanna maximum seat time in the team's other car.

"It's good on a number of levels," said Rick Kelly. "Firstly, just for all the guys to get to know Bargs and to have a chat to him and experience what it's like to work with him at a track is good. It allows us to hit the ground running next year.

"Also, to get Jason in the car and to feel what it's like to steer one of our rockets around on a typical Winton in greasy conditions, it's been good for all of us. We've all bonded quite well and we're all pretty excited about next year. We already feel like we're a team that's worked together for a while."

Kelly Racing will release details regarding its fourth driver for the 2010 V8 Supercar Championship Series at a later date.