Todd Kelly (born 9 October 1979) is a retired Australian professional racing driver who competed in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship. He is the older brother of fellow Supercars driver and former

Bathurst 1000 The Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most rece ...

winner,

Rick Kelly Rick Kelly (born 17 January 1983) is an Australian professional racing driver who previously competed in the Supercars Championship. He last drove the No. 15 Ford Mustang GT for Kelly Racing. Previously, he drove for the HSV Dealer Team with w ...

. He drove for the

Holden Racing Team Walkinshaw Andretti United is an Australian motor racing team based in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton. The team currently fields two Holden ZB Commodores in the Supercars Championship for Nick Percat and Chaz Mostert, along with a Porsche 91 ...

from 2003 until 2007, and

Perkins Engineering Perkins Engineering was a team contesting the Australian V8 Supercar Championship Series, operating as an active racing team between 1986 and 2008. From 2009 onwards, the involvement of Perkins Engineering in the championship wounded back into ...

in 2008. Since 2009, he has been with his family team Kelly Racing (now known as Kelly Grove Racing). He is the youngest driver to have reached 100 starts in the series.

Supercars Championship

Season

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

was Kelly's first full-time season in V8 Supercars (although he had previously raced in the category in 99' and 00'), he drove for the K-Mart Racing Team alongside Greg Murphy. He and Greg finished 3rd at Bathurst. He finished his first full season in 6th and broke through for his first-round victory in the

last round ''Last Round'' is the seventh studio album by the psychedelic folk band the Holy Modal Rounders, released in 1978 through Adelphi Records. Track listing Personnel ;The Holy Modal Rounders *Peter Stampfel – fiddle, banjo, vocals ...

of the season at

Sandown Raceway Sandown International Raceway is a motor racing circuit in the suburb of Springvale in Melbourne, Victoria, approximately south east of the city centre. Sandown is considered a power circuit with its " drag strip" front and back straights be ...

. Season

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

saw him take four second places, and fifth in the championship. After two successful years with K-Mart Racing Team, the departure of Jason Bright left a vacancy at the

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

. Kelly and new team-mate

Mark Skaife Mark Skaife (born 3 April 1967) is a retired Australian motor racing driver. Skaife is a five-time champion of the V8 Supercar Championship Series, including its predecessor, the Australian Touring Car Championship, as well as a six-time Bath ...

won the

Sandown 500 The Sandown 500 (formally known as the Penrite Oil Sandown 500) is an annual endurance motor race which is staged at the Sandown Raceway, near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia from 1964. The event's name, distance – and the category of cars co ...

in very wet conditions and in controversial circumstances with a late race tussle with the

Team Dynamik Team Dynamik was an Australian motor racing team that competed in Australian V8 Supercar racing between 2001 and 2005. History Owned by Kieran Wills, Adelaide based Team Dynamik debuted in the 2001 with Simon Wills racing an ex Gibson Motorsp ...

Commodore of

Jason Richards Jason John Richards (10 April 1976 – 15 December 2011) was a New Zealand motor racing driver. A multiple championship winning driver in his homeland in the New Zealand Touring Car Championship, he moved to Australia to pursue a career in the ...

and

Simon Wills Simon Wills (born 3 October 1976 in Auckland, New Zealand) is a former racing driver who currently runs a graphic design business. Racing career Formula cars Wills finished runner up in the 1995 New Zealand Formula Ford Championship. He had ...

. Kelly finished ninth in the championship, behind his brother Rick in eighth. Kelly was part of the two-car Holden Monaro assault by

Garry Rogers Motorsport Garry Rogers Motorsport is an Australian motor racing team. It is owned by retired racing driver Garry Rogers who began the team to further his own racing efforts. Based in Melbourne, originally out of a Nissan dealership owned by Rogers, the te ...

on the 2003 Bathurst 24 Hour race. With co-drivers Jason Bright, Greg Murphy and

Peter Brock Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, a ...

, Kelly won the race with Murphy crossing the line only 0.3505 seconds ahead of the teams lead car (and the

race winner) driven by

Garth Tander Garth Tander (born 31 March 1977) is a multiple-championship winning Australian motor racing driver competing in the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship's Enduro Cup, co-driving the No. 97 Holden ZB Commodore for Triple Eight Race Engineer ...

and co-driven by Steven Richards,

Cameron McConville Cameron 'Conkers' McConville (born 22 January 1974) is an Australian racing driver and motorsport celebrity. While retired from full-time competition, McConville still races occasionally and is an in-demand endurance event co-driver. McConville ...

and

Nathan Pretty Nathan Pretty (born 7 July 1973) is an Australian racecar driver. Career He first rose to prominence racing AUSCAR Superspeedway sedans (a Holden Commodore), becoming rookie of the year in his initial season in 1994. His family based race te ...

. Season 2004 saw him finish behind his brother in the Championship, but this time two places up in seventh. Season

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

was Kelly's most successful year in V8 Supercars, claiming five podiums. Three of them were wins, including the Bathurst 1000 with Mark Skaife which was Todd's 26th birthday and also the

V8 Supercars China Round The V8 Supercars China Round (formally known as the Buick V8 Supercars China Round) was a motor racing event for V8 Supercars that took place at the Shanghai International Circuit in Shanghai, China in 2005. History The China Round was announced ...

, the series' only ever event to be held in China. He finished 4th in the standings, ahead of teammate Skaife in fifth. Kelly's

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

season was fairly average throughout the first six rounds, albeit largely through mechanical failures, however after strong driving performances at the next three rounds including second in both the

and

when he paired up with younger brother Rick Kelly. Kelly's seat was taken by HSV Dealer Team driver

. He was just starting to show some of the form that had him finish fourth in the championship in 2005. He finished the year off strongly, with a second and first place in the last two rounds which left him in sixth place at the end of the year. Todd Kelly and Garth Tander

Season 2007 was another average year for Kelly, he won the

Clipsal 500 The Adelaide 500 (also known as the VALO Adelaide 500 for sponsorship reasons) is an annual motor racing event for Supercars held on the streets of the east end of Adelaide, South Australia between 1999 to 2020 and again from 2022. It is someti ...

but was not able to continue that edge. He came second at Phillip Island and at the Grand Finale, finishing seventh in the championship. In doing so, helped secure

the driver's championship. At the conclusion of the season, Kelly announced he would drive for Jack Daniel's Racing from 2008 onwards after a five-year association with HRT.Jack Daniel's Racing Signs Todd Kelly
This move is believed to have also been supported by 2007 champion Garth Tander confirming he will be moving from HSVDT to HRT. Kelly's

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

proved to be inconsistent. After starting the year well at Clipsal, where he finished fifth for the round, the middle part of the season saw a lack of the results expected from Kelly. After a major suspension geometry issue was resolved during the course of the Bathurst weekend, the car showed a sudden turn of speed. He finished 4th at Surfers Paradise, then scored a stunning race win in the wet at

Symmons Plains Symmons Plains Raceway is a motor racing circuit in Australia, located about south of Launceston, Tasmania. Since the closure of the Longford circuit in the 1960s it has been Tasmania's premier motor racing facility. The circuit is one of th ...

, the first victory of any kind (race or round) for a

entry since 2006. Kelly finished the season in 12th position.

Career results

Holden Commodore VE of Todd Kelly (HRT 2007)

Supercars Championship results

(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Bathurst 1000 results

Bathurst 24 Hour results

References

External links

Official Todd Kelly Website

Todd Kelly Holden Motor Sport Profile

Todd Kelly V8 Supercars Official Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Todd 1979 births Bathurst 1000 winners Formula Ford drivers Formula Holden drivers Living people People from Mildura Racing drivers from Victoria (Australia) Supercars Championship drivers Kelly Racing drivers Nismo drivers Garry Rogers Motorsport drivers