Racing in the co-driver's class for Perth's Rob Walters, Kelly won the rookie of the year last year, but the season finished on a sour note when Walters crashed the truck in the main driver's class in the final round in Adelaide.

The truck has spent the past six months in the workshop in Perth as Walters and his pitcrew rebuilt it from scratch, improving crucial factors such as its brakes and power, and they used all the time available to them to make sure they got it right.

And that's exactly what they did in the opening round at Narellan's Oran Park 10 days ago, with Kelly claiming overall honours in the co-driver's class and Walters finishing second in the main event - the first event since that crash.

Kelly said the main class was conducted over five races each round, while his category involved two races on the wee- kend, and it was a good feeling to land the final round win at Oran Park before it is clos- ed for racing.

"The truck is much better now than it was last year," he said.

"They put new disc brakes on it instead of the drum bra- kes, which means you can go a lot deeper into a corner before you have to brake, and the power has been improved as well, so it's pretty good.

"I was about 11/2 seconds per

lap quicker than last year so it's going really well."

At Oran Park, Kelly started the six-lap first race on pole, only to spin out during the race ? remarkably getting the rig pointing back in the right direction and charging back through the field to finish in second spot.

With a reverse grid in place for race two, Kelly had eight laps to get back to the front, but he needed only one strai- ght, charging from second last to lead into the first turn, and he controlled the pace from then on to win by half the len- gth of the straight and wrap up the round win.

Kelly will be back behind the wheel for the second round at Winton, Victoria, in six weeks before two rounds in Perth and one in Adelaide to complete the series.