Alex Rullo will race an Opel Astra TCR for Kelley Racing in this year’s TCR Australia series, having been named as the second confirmed driver in the outfit’s four-car Opel and Subaru line-up.
Rullo joins Molly Taylor, who will race one of the Subaru WRX STi cars, in the team, with another two drivers yet to be announced.
Rullo has competed with Kelly Racing in the Supercars Championship endurance races in 2018, partnering with Simona de Silvestro in one of the team’s Nissan Altima cars.
The 18-year-old has previously raced in the Super3 V8 Series at the age of 14, before moving on to Super 2 a year later. He made his Supercars début in 2017, racing a Holden Commodore for Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport, gaining a best result of 15th.
Rullo will test one of the Opel Astra cars for the first time at Winton Raceway on Monday.
“It’s great to be continuing my relationship with Kelly Racing in the new TCR Australia Series driving the new Astra,” said Rullo.
“I think it’s going to be a really exciting and promising series. The free-to-air deal with SBS will give the series a lot of public interest.
“The cars are terrific. The car has just landed and I‘m looking forward to driving the Astra at Winton on Monday. I drove a British Touring Car Astra in the UK recently. These are similar to the TCR cars, and that was a heap of fun.
“My expectation is to be competitive. The driver and team line-up looks really strong, but it’s a new series, new cars and everyone is new to it so there are a lot of unknowns. Kelly Racing is a great team though, so I feel we are going to be at the top and really looking forward to being a part of it.”
Todd Kelly, the owner of Kelly Racing, believes that the style of racing in TCR will suit a young talent such as Rullo.
“We really enjoyed our relationship with Alex last year and we are glad to be able to keep him in our stables in the Astra TCR car,” said Kelly.
“For a young kid, he is very mature behind the wheel and has a lot of potential. These cars are going to suit him and the experienced field of drivers will be a good test.
“We are very confident that he will be competitive and we’re can’t wait to get the car out on track at Winton and Monday and get a good feel for it all.”