RICK Kelly’s last Nissan Altima Supercar will form a special part of the attractions at the Castrol-backed 50th Anniversary Victorian North West Titles karting event in Mildura next month.
To be held on the King’s Birthday weekend of June 10-11, the titles will see the two-time Bathurst 1000 winner himself on hand to support grassroots motorsport in the area.
The event will see over $15,000 cash and prizes up for grabs including over $5000 of prizes in an early entry giveaway for competitors entering before May 27 and $600 in cash for the place-getters in each class (including $300 for the win).
Kelly, who is on the organising committee of the event via the Mildura Kart Club, and son Lex have crafted handmade trophies to be awarded at the event, at which Lex will be racing 24 years after his father won at the same meeting.
Kelly, who retired from Supercars at the end of 2020 has kept busy away from motorsport over the last two and a half years.
He spoke in August 2022 about his work on the Trentham Waters Resort Mildura, an RV park on the northern side of the NSW/Victoria border, and has also been producing the Castrol-backed Hell-Bent Garage video series.
The Nissan Supercar that will be on display in Mildura at the Victorian North-West Titles is the Altima chassis that Kelly debuted partway through the 2017 season to replace the car destroyed in a multi-car, race-stopping accident at Symmons Plains.
Kelly raced the car for the remainder of that season as well as the full 2018 and 2019 championships. He used it to win a race at Winton in 2018 the week that Nissan had announced it would withdraw its Supercars involvement at the end of the season.
“It’s in running order, I start it up every couple of weeks,” Kelly told V8 Sleuth of his Altima this week.
“It’s pretty much as it rolled off the track in Newcastle and still has rubber jammed up under the wheel arches and brake dust on the wheels.”
Kelly last raced the car in the 2019 season finale in Newcastle as the team moved to Ford Mustangs in 2020.
Rick has since retained this car as part of his collection of vehicles in his shed and it’s often viewed in the background of many of he and son Lex’s Hell-Bent Garage series videos.
Kelly retired from Supercars racing at the end of the 2020 season, however he made a cameo behind the wheel of another Altima last December at Winton, turning laps in the Nissan Supercar owned by brother Todd and being raced by nephew Mason.
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