Rick Kelly: No Home Ground Advantage at Winton

2006 V8 Supercar Champion Rick Kelly has played down the home-ground advantage for Victorian V8 Supercar teams at Winton Motor Raceway, ahead of the Winton V8 SuperSprint on 15-17 May.Kelly’s Nissan Motorsport outfit is amongst the V8 teams to use Winton as a testing facility, but Kelly says many other factors come into play during the cut-throat competition of a race meeting.“The home track advantage isn’t really an advantage anymore; it’s just another track on the calendar,” Kelly said.“Just looking at the results over the years, Queensland-based teams have been strong down here, and vice-versa.”Nevertheless, Winton holds fond memories for Nissan; it remains the only circuit where they have won a race in the V8 Supercar era, Kelly’s team-mate James Moffat claiming a victory in 2013.“Over the years we’ve done a lot of miles around Winton, and for us it’s a track that presents opportunities, there’s no doubt about that,” Kelly said.“If we do a good job there, we should be well and truly towards the front; there are no big ticket items standing in the way of us getting a good result there.“In saying that, it is a very, very difficult track to get right, from both a setup and driving point of view.”Kelly said the tight and technical nature of the Winton circuit can produce unpredictable results, making it a favourite for spectators.“Winton is an interesting one, as it offers up a fair few different types of corners,” Kelly said.“There are some really tight corners, the change of direction at the start of the lap, and there’s also the sweeper, which is a fair bit faster.“There are also some bumpy braking areas to deal with.“Winton always throws up a couple of interesting things, last year it was the patching, and this year who knows, it could be rain, it could be hail, it could be a bit of oil on the track.“It’s always an eventful one, and it always catches a few people out.”This year’s race format sees a pair of 60km races on Saturday, followed by a 200km feature on Sunday. With no pit stops in Saturday’s sprints and limited overtaking opportunities, Kelly believes qualifying will take on even greater importance than usual.“It’s a track that is extremely hard to pass on; if you qualify well and do a good job, you’ll stay up the front, if you start up the back with a quick car, it’s really difficult to make progress,” Kelly said.“For us, as always, we’re very focussed on the qualifying pace.”All motorsport fans in north-eastern Victoria  can purchase their tickets online at https://www.outix.com.au/sites/winton/. Reserved grandstand seats are still available but are filling quickly, so fans are advised to book in advance to avoid disappointment.