Kelly: The track is crazy!
After acquainting themselves with the precinct hosting the KL City Grand Prix, the V8 Supercars drivers believe the racing won't be for the faint hearted around the tight street circuit.
The teams will complete a proper track walk this morning at 6.30am local time (8.30am AEST) but from what they have seen looking around the streets, they're in for a challenge this weekend.
Four of the five selected to represent the category and their brand in Malaysia are Bathurst 1000 winners; all are race winners and three Barry Sheene medalists (fairest and best). All V8 Supercar manufacturers represented with Craig Lowndes (Holden), Scott McLaughlin (Volvo), Will Davison (Erebus Mercedes AMG), Chaz Mostert (Ford) and Todd Kelly (Nissan) the first to sample the circuit before next year's Championship round.
The roads utilised for the circuit could be likened to shutting down George Street in Sydney or Collins Street in Melbourne - right in the heart of the Kuala Lumpur.
"The track is pretty crazy!" Kelly said.
This weekend he steers brother Rick's race car and says he will need to be careful to keep it in one piece. He and the team adapted the inside of the Altima to suit him yesterday, to "make sure I can reach the pedals and make sure I can hold it flat," he said.
The team completed an engine change on the Sunday night after Queensland Raceway before the Nissan was freighted to Malaysia, so the Jack Daniel's Altima should be in top shape this weekend.
"Obviously [there are] a lot of walls and a lot of tight sections where you need to be extremely precise," Kelly told v8supercars.com.au.
"One little slip up you can end up in the fence, which I don't want to do to Rick's car! So making sure you can get the brakes and everything spot on and comfortable is probably more important here than any place."
Street circuits have always produced action-packed V8 Supercars racing, with four currently on the calendar with the Clipsal 500, Castrol EDGE Townsville 400, Castrol Gold Coast 600 and Sydney 500 all marquee events in the sport.
Davison - who has won at all four of those street events - described what he had seen of the circuit to be compact and amazing.
"Our cars love street tracks, we always turn on great racing at these types of tracks," he said.
"It looks really fast in some sections and a couple of the temporary chicanes they've put in - until [the track walk] we might not exactly see the type of kerb profiles.
"Throwing [our cars] over the kerbs and chicanes is always one of the spectacular things of our sport and the cars sound great over the concrete walls - when you get 25 out there they sound amazing.
"This sort of track really suits out category to a tee, this showcases us worldwide."
V8 Supercars Chief Executive Officer James Warburton promised a great show from the five drivers this weekend, with the KL City Grand Prix kicking off today.
"We're going to rock every building to its foundation," he said.
"It's going to be brutal, it's going to be fierce and whilst these guys are incredible assets and ambassadors for our sport, they're also the best touring car drivers on the globe and are going to put on one hell of a show."
Stay tuned to v8supercars.com.au for all the action from the KL City Grand Prix.
