Kelly teases Castrol Mustang for 2020
30 Oct 2019
Rick Kelly has provided an early preview of what his Castrol-backed Kelly Racing Ford Mustang will look like in 2020.
The 2006 champion has posted a render of a Castrol Mustang on social media, captioned: “This year’s colours on next year’s ride, it’s hard not to be excited about a Castrol Mustang!”
Kelly Racing will switch to Fords after a seven-year stint campaigning Nissan Altimas, running this season without factory backing.
Next year will mark Kelly’s first Supercars starts in a Ford, having raced Holdens for Walkinshaw from 2001-08, before Kelly Racing’s 2009-12 Commodore era.
Kelly is the only currently confirmed driver for the team’s two-car Mustang program, although Andre Heimgartner is widely expected to remain with the squad.
While Kelly has teased the look of his car, the first Kelly Racing Mustang isn’t expected to be seen on track until next year.
The team has begun an in-house engine program utilising
Team co-owner Todd Kelly told Supercars.com following the Mustang announcement that when the first car hits the track will largely be dependent on Supercars’ homologation tests.
The Mustang and the Commodore are both set to undergo changes in the off-season as the category works to reduce downforce in order to improve the racing.
“There’s not a lot of point to rush the engine and get a car complete if it [the aero] is going to change,” he said.
“We need to understand when the aero test is and what components might be changed and then work from there to try and get a car on track.”
While all Supercars have the same control chassis and items like suspension are interchangeable between brands, Kelly says there’ll be a lot to learn next year.
“We’ll have to learn how to understand the aero quickly,” he said.
“We’ll have a completely new engine that hopefully doesn’t have too many teething problems, we hit the money on the R&D [research and development] and it performs well.
“We’ll have a control damper to deal with, there’s not really much that’s the same.
“But at the end of the day, everyone has the same chassis and we should be able to get our head around it pretty quick.”
