It’s gearing up to be a busy Christmas-New Year period for Marcus Kelly, who will travel to the America for the second season running to contest the 32nd annual Speedway Motors Tulsa Shootout for Micro 600s (Formula 500s).

The Tasmanian-based racer will contest both the Outlaw and Stock classes over the five-night event, which spans from December 28 to January 1, 2017 at the Tulsa Expo Raceway in Tulsa, Oklahoma, aboard the # 47K Maxwell Industries supported CS9 car.

After crashing out in the Outlaws class last season and running in the C main in the Stock class, Kelly is looking forward to improving on his results this time around and will no doubt be using his experience from last year’s event to prepare. Kelly heads into the Tulsa Shootout with some valuable track time, having recently come away with a top-10 result in the annual Jack Willsher Cup at Warrnambool’s Premier Speedway in Victoria and he was also well on his way to the feature-race win at Latrobe’s Gulf Western & Independent Oils Raceway before an electrical woe dashed his winning hopes.

“The goal for this year’s event is to try and make the A mains in both the Outlaw and Stock classes,” the 2012-13 season Australian Formula 500 Champion enthused.

“We’re really optimistic heading into the event and we’ve learned a lot from last season’s results. It’s a cutthroat event with around 300 cars nominated who really don’t give you an inch out there on the track. A total of 280 cars end up on the watching the A mains from the sidelines, so making the A mains are going to be a tough task.

“We know it’s going to be a big challenge, so we’ll definitely be better prepared this time around. It’s an honour to be only the second Australian to run this event (behind American-based Australian Danny Carroll); hopefully we can bring home a great result.”

Joining Kelly in Oklahoma will be his USA crew chief Brad Coleman, who is one of the best Micro 600 crew chiefs in the country, and with Coleman building the car this season, Kelly has a huge opportunity to make the A mains.

Kelly has been running the new CS9 car for the past year with the help of his good friends Damian Robins, Darcy Baldock and Ben Harris, after losing his crew chief of five years, Craig Munday.

"It’s been quite difficult racing speedway without Craig around,” admitted Kelly.

“I’ve been with Craig for five years and in that time we taken out several state title wins, memorial wins, series wins and of course an Australian Title win, so it goes without saying that he is a key contributor to our team here in Australia.”

After the Tulsa Shootout, Kelly is excited to have Munday back on board and the pair will complete the remainder of the Australian season together.

For his next appearance, Kelly will head to Cranes Combined Carrick Speedway on Boxing Night (December 26) to contest the annual Ken McKinnell Memorial, prior to flying to America on December 27 (a combined total of 40 hours flying time one way) to begin his Tulsa Shootout assault.

-ENDS-