Jack Daniel's Racing team-mates Todd and Rick Kelly have scored a double top 10 finish in the final race of the SKYCITY Triple Crown at Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin today.

The Jack Daniel's Commodores met the chequered flag line astern at the end of today's race, with Todd Kelly finishing eighth and Rick Kelly in ninth place. The result lifts Rick Kelly to seventh in the 2010 V8 Supercar Championship Series standings, with Todd Kelly maintaining 19th position.

The brothers started the day in fine fashion by both qualifying in the top 10, the first time since the Sunday race in Hamilton, New Zealand that both Jack Daniel's Commodores have qualified inside the top 10.

With Todd Kelly starting from fourth place on the grid and Rick Kelly from sixth, both made perfect starts to be second and fourth by the first corner.

 

The pair then raced hard against Jamie Whincup and James Courtney throughout the first stint on their softer 'option' tyres, with the battle wearing out their softer rubber earlier than the team's strategy had planned.

As the race wore on, both Jack Daniel's Commodores were cemented in the top 10, but did suffer from tyre wear earlier than some rivals, giving the team an area of improvement to work on.

But the tyre wear did not stop the brothers racing wheel-to-wheel for much of the race, with Todd edging out Rick by under a second at the end of the 69-lap race.

Jamie Whincup won today's race in Darwin ahead of Mark Winterbottom and Shane Van Gisbergen.

The next event of the 2010 V8 Supercars Championship Series will be the Sucrogen Townsville 400 in far north Queensland on July 9-11.

JACK DANIEL'S RACING QUOTEBOARD

TODD KELLY - #7 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore:

"The car was a lot better than it has been and we're starting to get a much better handle on tuning it," said Todd Kelly.

"It feels good at the start of each stint on its tyres and it feels like they are going to last, but they just went away more than the faster cars around us.

"A lot of that was due to the fact that we had to put ourselves a little bit out of sync

"At the start, Whincup hit me from behind three or four corners a lap for three laps in a row and it just absolutely wrecked my tyres.

"So once he got past I was already half-cooked, so I started to really struggle late in that stint and then had to pit early.

"Then in the following stint again, everyone was on fresher tyres and it was the same for the whole race. A lot of the guys that I was around had better tyres than me that were racing me.

"We may have been able to stay in front of Jason Richards if we hadn't had the tyre degradation in the first stint, but to get any further up than that we would have needed a better handling car."

RICK KELLY - #15 Jack Daniel's Racing Holden Commodore:

"It was a really long race," said Rick Kelly.

"We were caught behind Todd there and we were just driving really corner for corner, lap for lap, behind each other.

"I was waiting for him to just miss a gear or something to allow me to jump past, I was just a fraction quicker on fresher tyres but not enough to pass.

"That was a really good race. It was actually a really good battle between Todd and me. I was following him and it was good to see both of the Jack Daniel's Commodores in the top 10.

"We would have liked to have been a little further up, but I think we should be happy with the recovery we've made from yesterday.

"We've learned a lot here this weekend in terms of set-up and we leave the track knowing what we need to do for next year.

"Last year we left here scratching our heads a little of unsure of things.

"Although we didn't get great results, that was one positive for us. We've found a couple of things here that I think will also really help us for Townsville, whereas last year we were not as strong as we would have liked there, so heading into that event I've got some more confidence now as a result of this weekend."

V8 Supercar Championship Series Points Standings
After Race 14 of 26
1. James Courtney 1698
2. Jamie Whincup 1641
3. Craig Lowndes 1452
4. Shane van Gisbergen 1412
5. Mark Winterbottom 1344
6. Garth Tander 1242
7. Rick Kelly 1226
8. Lee Holdsworth 1218
9. Michael Caruso 1139
10. Steven Johnson 1040
19. Todd Kelly 768

RESULTS: Race Two
1. #1 Jamie Whincup 69 laps
2. #5 Mark Winterbottom
3. #9 Shane Van Gisbergen
4. #18 James Courtney
5. #888 Craig Lowndes
6. #47 Tim Slade
7. #8 Jason Richards
8. #7 Todd Kelly
9. #15 Rick Kelly
10. #6 Steven Richards

RESULTS: Sunday Qualifying
1. #4 Alex Davison 1:10.0614
2. #1 Jamie Whincup 1:10.0616
3. #5 Mark Winterbottom 1:10.0715
4. #7 Todd Kelly 1:10.1625
5. #18 James Courtney 1:10.2811
6. #15 Rick Kelly 1:10.3177
7. #888 Craig Lowndes 1:10.3898
8. #33 Lee Holdsworth 1:10.4539
9. #17 Steven Johnson 1:10.4778
10. #9 Shane Van Gisbergen 1:10.4898

HIDDEN VALLEY RACEWAY DETAILS:
Circuit: Hidden Valley Raceway
Location: Darwin, Northern Territory
Circuit Length: 2.87 kilometres
Average Speed: 149 km/h
Maximum Speed: 271 km/h
Format: 120km race Saturday and 200km race Sunday
2009 Attendance: 43,119 (three days)
2009 Saturday Pole Position: Jason Richards
2009 Saturday Race Winner: Jamie Whincup
2009 Sunday Pole Position: Garth Tander
2009 Sunday Race Winner: Michael Caruso

AUS TELEVISION SCHEDULE – FOX SPORTS REPLAYS
Times subject to amendment – please check local guides

Sunday 20 June 2010 (Replay on Fox Sports 3)
11:00pm – 12:30am (V8 Supercars Race 11 Highlights)

Monday 21 June 2010 (Replay on Fox Sports 1)
11:30am – 2:00pm (V8 Supercars Race 12 Highlights)