The Holden Special Vehicles Dealer Team departs Shanghai with unfinished business after a weekend that promised much but delivered mixed fortunes.
Drivers Rick Kelly and Garth Tander both vowed to return to the magnificent Shanghai International Circuit next year, better prepared and determined to put on the premium performance that eluded the team in the inaugural V8 Supercar round in China.
"We love the circuit, the crowd was huge and the people are fantastic," said Kelly. "We would have liked to have done better this year, but we'll be back and looking for a much better result next year, that's for certain."
In this morning's Race 2, Kelly's Team Buick Commodore recovered from clutch problems that sidelined it on Saturday, to round up half the field from the back row of the grid, finishing 16th and looking good for more progress in the afternoon finale.
Tander also shot out of the blocks, making up several places on the first lap, to seventh place, but then it all went pear-shaped when a rival slammed into the back of Steven Johnson's Falcon, pushing it into Tander's #16 Commodore and spinning him at the hairpin.
Tander could only sit and watch the rest of the field parade by before rejoining the race in 27th place.
Later in the race, the Tander car began to suffer the same clutch problems as several other competitors - an affliction attributed to the extra-grippy surface of the 4.6 km track.
Tander finished Race 2 in 22nd place, and the team engineers rushed to change the clutch for the 30-lap Race 3.
Tander made steady forward progress throughout the final race, making up 10 places to finish 12th, despite losing radio communication and copping a dented mudguard that required some hammer work at the pit stop.
For Kelly, the race lasted just seven laps until a stuck throttle sent his #15 Commodore into a wall, breaking a steering arm, and then into kitty litter at the pit entrance. To add insult to injury, the recovery crew just about destroyed the back of the car, ripping off the rear bumped and a taillight in pulling it out.
#15 Rick Kelly (Race 2 - 16th; Race 3 - DNF; Round - 34 pts; Championship - 401 pts, 19th): "The Chinese good luck charm worked in the second race this morning but we should have installed a new one for Race 3. We had a handful of dramas this weekend which hindered us in qualifying and Race 1. In Race 2, we went forward, and in Race 3 we were moving forward quite rapidly and things were looking good. A few people pushed me out of the way, which wasn't too great. At the end of the pits the throttle jammed and sent me into the wall. We'll be making sure we come back here next year because the track's good, the facilities are excellent, the people are great, and the crowd's massive, so it is just a perfect place to race."
#16 Garth Tander (Race 2 - 22nd; Race 3 - 12th; Round - 108pts; Championship - 519pts, 15th): "Being turned around in the first race today hurt us, as the car was pretty badly damaged and I had to nurse it around. If we had been able to finish in the top 10 it would have put us in a good position for the final race. The car was better in that last one, but we had a problem off the line with the clutch again, putting us back in the pack. I had contact early, before the pit stop and then I lost my radio, which caused a bit of confusion in the pits. But after the tyre stop, the car wasn't too bad, and we made our way through the traffic pretty well. The car was the best it has been all weekend, so we are making progress."
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