Rick Kelly unlocks pace in BP All Stars Eseries

Aiden Taylor 07 May 2020

Round Five of the BP Supercars All Stars Eseries saw Kelly Racing take on the famous historic Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, home of the Belgian Grand Prix. This week the Supercars regulars were joined by wildcards, McLaren F1 superstar Lando Norris as well as Aussie Formula 3 driver and RedBull junior Jack Doohan.

Round Five incorporated a Top-10 Shootout-style qualifying session to setup the grid for race one. Unfortunately André Heimgartner just missed out, claiming eleventh spot on the grid, while Rick Kelly struggled to string a lap together and qualified to the rear of the grid.

Race One of the evening was a thriller which saw André Heimgartner get a great start in the NED Racing Mustang and claw his way into the top-ten. A last lap battle between the front runners ended in disaster and André was able to capitalise and take home sixth place.

Rick Kelly had a great run in the Castrol Mustang, keeping out of trouble and making up over ten places on his qualifying position to come home P13.

Race Two of the night was a reverse grid format based on the finishing positions in Race One which meant both Rick and André started from the rear of the field. Rick was in the wars from the outset getting tangled up in some lap one drama, he pitted early to repair damage but was penalised for speeding in pit lane, then made an error with his refuelling numbers and was stationary for around 40-seconds – this hurt his position badly and caused him to finish P24. André meanwhile was able to race from the rear of the field to P10.

Race Three was a longer format 14-lap session with two mandatory pit stops and the starting grid was determined in order of points accrued during races one and two. André started P8 while Rick was P21.

André had a solid start to the race but was quickly taken out by Will Davison at turn two and sent to the rear of the grid. André was able to recover and race back for a solid P14. Rick meanwhile continued to battle in the Castrol Mustang when he was rear-ended on the way into pit lane causing his car to accelerate above the pit lane speed limit – he was given a black flag and a hefty time penalty for this, making for a very difficult race.

Next week the Eseries returns to North America with races at The Circuit of the Americas and Sebring International Raceway.

QUOTES

Rick Kelly, #15 Castrol Racing

“Even though the results don’t reflect it, I feel like we actually made a pretty big improvement this week and unlocked some pace and enjoyed Spa. I got some pointers during the week from André and it really paid off."

"In the first race while I didn’t do well in qualifying, I was able to have a pretty good race and had the speed to run in the midfield which I was happy with as I haven’t been able to do that in previous weeks.”

“Unfortunately from there it went downhill, in race two I made some pretty big errors in the pit stop, I got done for speeding in pit lane then I stuffed up the refuel numbers and put 110-litres of fuel in the car so I was stationary for about forty seconds!”

“That was my fault but then in race three we got rear-ended on the way into pit lane causing the car to accelerate in pit lane and go above the speed limit so I was penalised for that again and got a big time penalty, so a little frustrated by that but overall I think we’ve made some gains and with a bit more practice during the week for the next round, I think we should be able to race competitively mid-pack which I’ll be happy with.”

André Heimgartner, #7 NED Racing

“Unfortunately last night wasn’t our night, I stuffed up qualifying and just missed out on the top-ten shootout which was disappointing and put us in an average spot to start the first race. Luckily we were able to capitalise on one of the crashes towards the end and gain a few more spots.”

“There was a bit of carnage in the second and third races and I got taken out a couple of times which wasn’t ideal but I think we got the best results we could given everything that unfolded and managed two top-tens.”

“Now it’s time to concentrate on next week and try and claw back some points in the championship”

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Rick Kelly unlocks pace in BP All Stars Eseries

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