BIRKDALE motor racing driver David Russell will team up with Todd Kelly in the Jack Daniels Nissan Altima for the Gold Coast 600 V8 Supercars endurance races this weekend.
David teamed up with Todd Kelly for the first two endurance V8 Supercar races at Sandown and Bathurst. Unfortunately, at Bathurst, David hit a kangaroo on the track, knocking the car out of the Big Race.
This weekend is David’s first appearance in a V8 Supercar on the Gold Coast
He has previous experience on the circuit in the Porsche Carrera Cup - he finished fourth overall in 2006, fifth in 2008 and eighth in 2007.
David will start each race and his job will be to get the car in a good position for Todd Kelly to take over.
A factor in this weekend’s races is that many of the co drivers don’t have experience with the soft tyres that give the cars extra pace, but wear quickly.
During Friday’s practice Todd Kelly and co-driver David Russell showed good speed during the day, but an engine issue late in the final practice session affected their run.
The number 7 Jack Daniel's Racing Nissan Altima had an engine change overnight and with no more new-spec Nissan engines available, had to revert to the old pre-enduro specification with less power.
David Russell said his practice sessions weren’t too bad.
“I've had to try and come up to speed and get used to everything, I haven't been here since 2008 in Carrera Cup on the old circuit without the hairpin, and I've never driven a V8 Supercar here as well," David Russell said.
“I'm reasonably happy and I know the areas I need to work on, the car is really good and I'm feeling really comfortable in it. In the parts where you can really attack and also defend, I'm feeling like we have a good race car underneath us.
On Friday the main drivers took to the circuit for Practice 1, before the co-drivers had the opportunity to test the limits during sessions three and four. For Practice 4 Todd and Rick Kelly were back on track and set the fastest times for the day for car #7 and #15 as the track continued to clean up and gather more grip.
The weekend's action will feature two 300km races, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, with separate qualifying sessions each day. The international co-driver rule has been scrapped for 2013, meaning lead drivers will line up with the same co-drivers they had at Sandown and Bathurst.
The 2013 V8 Supercars season of endurance consists of three events, the Sandown 500, Bathurst 1000 and Gold Coast 600, and for the first time drivers will race for the Pirtek Endurance Cup awarded to the driver pairing with the most championship points across all three races.
