Tag Archives: Teams

Drivers

James Moffat

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Hi to all you V8 Supercars fans around the world!

At the end of the 2017 season James Moffat announced that he will not be driving full time in 2018.

As it turns out he looks to be hot property and going to have a busy 2018 anyway.

Stepping out from full time driving is for many reasons, one of which is to let young James Golding step up to the main game this year.

He will be driving in the Pirtek Enduro cup with Tickford Racing in 2018.

Out of respect for his contribution to the V8 Supercars racing industry I thought it would be a good idea to look back over his career to date.

James Moffatt was born on the 18th of June 1984.

As the son of Allan Moffatt (a legend in the world of touring cars) it was inevitable that his path would lead him into the motor sport industry.

James Moffatt made his V8 Supercars Championship Series Debut in 2011 with Dick Johnson Racing.

He drove with Steven Richards in the Enduros in 2010 in the Dunlop Super Dealers Ford Falcon car number 6.

He has been a fulltime V8 Supercars driver since 2011.

This year will be first time he will not have a fulltime drive.

His professional driving history is as follows:

·       2004 Australian Lotus Trophy
·       2005 Australian V8 Utes Series
·       2007 Australian Formula Ford Championship
·       2008 Australian Carrera Cup Championship

·       2009 Fujitsu V8 Supercars Series
·       2010 Fujitsu V8 Supercars Series
·       2011 V8 Supercars Championship Debut

·       2012 V8 Supercars Championship
·       2013 V8 Supercars championship
·       2014 V8 Supercars championship
·       2015 V8 Supercars Championship
·       2016 V8 Supercars championship
·       2017 V8 Supercars Championship

Some of his career stats are:

·       222 Races
·       1 win
·       2 podium finishes
·       1 Pole position

Bathurst Career Results:

·       2010 Ford Performance Racing FG Falcon finished 11th lap 161
·       2011 Dick Johnson Racing finished 25th got to lap 146.
·       2012 Dick Johnson Racing finished 10th lap 161
·       2013 Nissan Motorsport finished 18th lap 161
·       2014 Nissan Motorsport finished 2nd lap 161
·       2015 Nissan Motorsport finished 10th lap 161
·       2016 Garry Rogers Motorsport DNF Lap 108
·       2017 Garry Rogers Motorsport DNF Lap 141

I am sorry to see James Moffat leaving his full-time driving position but I am sure we haven’t heard the last from him.

Drivers

Todd Kelly Retires from fulltime V8 Supercars racing

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Hi to all you V8 Supercars fans around the world!

The reason why I am writing this article is because Todd Kelly has now retired from fulltime V8 Supercars racing after a 20+ year career. He has had outstanding success and given a great deal to the sport so I wanted to say thanks by summarising his career.

Todd Kelly was born on the 9th of October 1979.

He started racing in the Australian Formula Ford Championship way back in 1996 to 1998 before joining The Shell Championship Series (aka the V8 Supercars Championship) in 1999.

He stayed with the Holden Young Lions in 1999 before moving to the Holden Racing for Enduro races in 2000 which were at the Queensland 500 and FAI 1000 at Mount Panorama Bathurst New South Wales.

Then in 2001 he joined the Kmart Racing Team and he stayed through 2002.

From 2003 to 2007 was with the Holden Racing Team to be teammates with Mark Skaife.

He spent the following year, 2008 with Jack Daniel’s Racing – Perkins Engineering before Tod and his brother, Rick Kelly started their own race team in 2009 called Kelly Brothers Racing.

Todd and Rick share a passion for racing so starting their own team made sense. However no one could ever say there was no sibling rivalry. When it came to racing, brother or not they were very competitive.

Unfortunately Todd Kelly’s competitive nature means he was going to be in the thick of it resulting in some bad incidents:

·       Barbagallo 2009 in race 24 he crashed on lap 40 of 84
·      Sydney Olympic Park 2011 in race 28 he crashed on lap 47 of 74
·       Albert park 2005 in race 2 he crashed on lap 1

Some of his career highs (and a few lows) include:

·       1st Bathurst 2005
·       1st Clipsal 500 2007
·       2nd Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000 2006

·       1st Symmons Plains 2008

·       DNF 2015 race 2

·       DNF 2013 Clipsal 500 race 2

·       DNF Race 1 1999 Eastern Creek New South Wales.

·       1st Shanghai 2005

·       1st Bahrain 2006

He has had

·       1 Bathurst win

·       19 race wins

·       Competed in a total of 546 races

All done within his 20 years of fulltime driving. They are impressive statistics.

Engineers he has worked with include Dillan Tallibarni  and Matthew Crawford.

The following list shows he has also been co-driver to some other great names in the sport:

·       Mark Skaife 2005

·       Rick Kelly 2006

·       Greg Murphy 2001

·       Nathan Pretty 2000

·       John Falkner 1998

·       Mark Noske 1999

·       Shane Price 2008

·       2009 Rick was Todd Kelly’s co driver

·       2010 Dale Wood was Todd Kelly’s co driver.

·       David Russell 2013

·       2014 Alex Buncombe was Todd Kelly’s co driver

·       In the 2003 Bathurst 24-hour co drivers in car 05 were Peter Brock, Jason Bright, Todd Kelly and Greg Murphy.

Thanks for the Entertainment over the years Todd Kelly.  Best of luck with the next chapter in your life.

.

Drivers

Jason Bright Annuces his Retirement from fulltime V8 Supercars Racing

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HI to all you V8 Supercars fans around the world!

Towards the end of the 2017 racing season Jason Bright announced his retirement from full time racing.

In this article we look back at a magnificent career spanning 2 decades.

Jason Bright was born on the 3rd of March 1973 In Moe, Victoria.

At the age of 15 he started racing Go Karts and immediately won championships.

In 1992 Bright raced Go Karts doubling up efforts with his entry to the Victorian Formula Ford Championship.

The following year saw him in the Australian Formula Ford Championship.

He was winning races and championships left right and centre.

Jason started full time touring car driver in 1998. The only year that Jason didn’t race in fulltime was 2000 because he was racing in Indy Lights. He has racked up a phenomenal 572 starts in V8 Supercars races.

In that first 2 years of racing under the Stone Brothers Racing Team he did extremely well and with co-driver Steven Richards won the Bathurst Classic.

The year 2000 was big for Bright. His ended his contract with Stone Brothers Racing and joined Dick Johnson Racing but also entered the Indy Lights, Champcar World Series, Shell Championship Series and the American Le Mans Series.

From 2001 onwards he held 2 year contracts following each other with Holden Racing Team, Paul Weel Racing and Ford Performance Racing(FPR). I am sure one of his career highlights was 2003 in the Bathurst 24 Hour, co-driving with Peter Brock, Greg Murphy and Todd Kelly. With a team like that of course they came in first.

Jason Bright does like to keep busy because in the meantime (2005) he established his own V8 Supercars team, Britek Motorsports with Fujitsu Racing as their main sponsor. He was so busy (and under contract) that he didn’t even have time to race in his own team until 2 years later. So for 2007 – 2009 Jason got to race in his own team. For a number of reasons Britek Motorsports was absorbed into Brad Jones Racing in 2009. He then joined Brad Jones Racing for the 2010 season and stayed with them until 2016.

He signed up with Prodrive racing Australia in 2017 when he felt it was time to hang the helmet up fulltime. He has confirmed he will be doing the Enduro races in 2018.

There are way too many career highlights and statistics to list but here are a selected few thrown in with a few lows:

·       1998 Bathurst Winner
·       1999 Darwin Round Winner.
·       2001 Clipsal winner.
·       Winton 1st 2002
·       Barbagallo 1st 2002
·       Best championship finish was back in 2002
·       1st 2003 Albert park race 1
·       2006 Sandown winner.
·       2005 Jason Bright started his own race team, Britek Motorsports
·       DNF’S Bathurst 2006 2007
·       Abu Dhabi 2nd 2011 race 2

·       1st Barbagallo 2011
·       2014 he had a bad crash
·       Started a total of 17 races in pole position two of which were 2011 at Barbagallo raceway and 2009 at Phillip island
·       20 race wins and 88 podium finishes
·       Competed in 572 V8 Supercars Championship races 

Some of his co-drivers have been:

·       Mark Winterbottom
·       Mark Skaife
·       Thomas Mazera
·       Paul Weel
·       David Brabham
·       Adam Macrow
·       Matt Halliday
·       Andrew Jones
·       Garry Jacobson

Jason Bright’s co drivers for the 1997 Primus 1000 classic was Allan Jones and Scott Preutt. They were driving car number 9.

 Jason Bright also raced at the Le man 24 hours back in 2013.

To have a 20 year career is just fantastic in the sport of racing and to have such phenomenal career is even more unusual.

Well-Done Jason Bright! Enjoy your retirement from full time racing (knew you couldn’t go cold turkey and will be glad to see you in the Enduro races).

Enjoy your next chapter in your life what ever that may hold.