Jack Daniel’s Racing drivers Rick and Todd Kelly have taken the wraps off their 2014 factory Altimas, ahead of Nissan Motorsport’s second season in the V8 Supercars Championship.
The pair of distinctive black and white Altimas sport a refined Jack Daniel’s paint scheme, year marking a ninth successive season of major team sponsorship in the class for the whiskey distillers, one of the longest serving on the grid.
After claiming a solid 14th in 2013, Rick Kelly says the team now have the package to propel them up the championship standings this year.
“We’ve sat down with the team, and analysed our strengths and weaknesses, and what we have to do to improve ourselves, and the results that we’ve got, and we’re ready to implement that now,” said Rick Kelly.
“It’s really exciting; the team have worked really hard over the summer, and the last six months in fact to develop and aero package that’s going to be a lot stronger for us in 2014 than what we saw in 2013.
“To match that and to get the most out of that, we’ve got to do a better job in all of the other areas that it takes to be successful on the track.
“That’s everything from engineering, to driving, to the strategy. For us, we’re very excited that we have a new opportunity in 2014 and to make the most out of it.”
Despite a tough debut season, Todd Kelly is pleased with what the team accomplished.
“I’m very excited to be at the beginning of our second year, the whole thing’s quite an unknown for us,” said Todd Kelly.
“We’ve had a pretty good crack at our first year, and we achieved a lot, in my opinion, when you consider the work that has gone on behind the scenes to develop the VK56 engine, and our first attempt at turning the Nissan Altima into a race car.
“All in all, it wasn’t too bad a year last year, the guys have all been working extremely hard through the second half of last year, and especially through the off season to develop a new aero kit for the car, which we haven’t used on a race track yet.
“Hopefully that has given us the gain that we are looking for.”
