'I couldn't see him': Owen Kelly delivers dramatic Trans Am win amid retaliation threat
After Brett Holdsworth fired a grenade over pit lane, Owen Kelly was asking where he was after a dominant Trans Am race win at Phillip Island.
Kelly cruised home to a five-second win, his first of the season.
Prior to the 13-lapper, Holdsworth doubled down on his warning suggesting he had "a fairly good shot" at Kelly.
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The Chevrolet racer never got a chance to fire a bullet as he battled to keep his place on the podium and watched the Ford in front of him walk away.
Trans Am front-runner Owen Kelly fired a barb back at Brett Holdsworth in their war of words. Nathan Wong
"I'm not going to run my mouth like some of these other blokes and clearly it doesn't pay off, right? I was trying to look in the mirror for him, I couldn't see him," said Kelly after the win.
"I don't know where he was, so I guess he was way back there somewhere."
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A race win looked an unlikely thing for Kelly in the early going after pole position winner James Moffat cleared away from the field.
However, it was a case of hero to zero, going from top spot to stone cold last after officials deemed his car wasn't fit to race.
The Garry Rogers Motorsport driver held a comfortable lead before his window net came unstuck, resulting in a breach of the series' rules.
James Moffat led the first half of the race until his window net came unstuck and was forced to pit. Nathan Wong
Moffat came to the pit lane for his team to fix the unstuck window net before sending him on his way.
That gifted former NASCAR race winner Kelly the lead, who skipped away from the battle for second between Brett Holdsworth, Lachie Dalton, and Nash Morris.
Morris was the star of the race, rising seven places to pip Holdsworth for second.
The son of Bathurst 1000 winner Paul Morris was forceful in his drive towards the podium, nudging Dalton at Siberia and divebombing Holdsworth late at Lukey Heights.
Holdsworth might not have even made the podium if not for Dalton also copping a mechanical black flag when his door flung open.
Brett Holdsworth (No.99) battles with Lachie Dalton. Nathan Wong
Dalton wound up second-to-last while Moffat finished a lap down in last.
Holdsworth conceded Kelly was just too good, and gave Morris kudos for his drive.
"Well done to Owen, he blitzed us," said Holdsworth.
"Good drive by Nash too. I don't know where he came from. I didn't even know he was there and just fired up the inside.
"There were some tough battles out there, that was a wicked race."
With the progressive grid format, Kelly will start from pole position with Holdsworth directly behind him in third. Morris will start alongside Kelly in second.
Race two of the weekend gets underway at 10:55am on Sunday with race three to close out the weekend 3:25pm.
Stan Sport will carry live, ad-free coverage of Sunday's racing from 9:30am.
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