RICK Kelly has revealed his first big project since retiring from Supercars at the end of the 2020 season, and he’ll be joined by his son Lex.
The pair will front Hell-Bent Garage, a new video series where the pair work together to rebuild and overhaul a variety of remarkable and often unlikely machines.
“Lex and I are very excited about this project, it’s something we have been working away on together for some time,” Kelly said.
“The Hell-Bent Garage series will take our viewers on a fun journey across a lot of different left-of-field projects, sharing the highs and lows of each build and creating one-of-a-kind machines along the way.
“The series is built around the shift from racing things to building them, getting out of my comfort zone, learning new things, and creating great memories with Lex along the way.”
Watch a preview of the series in the video player below!
Kelly has remained largely out of the limelight since stepping away from the cockpit at the end of the 2020 Bathurst 1000, taking part in the odd Supercars ride day for Kelly Grove Racing prior to he and brother Todd selling their remaining stake to the Grove family at the end of the 2021 season.
The ‘Hell-Bent’ brand was originally launched in 2002 by Rick and Globe International co-founder Peter Hill as a t-shirt business, and has been revived as the moniker for the garage designed and built by Rick on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula to facilitate his upcoming projects as well as his race-winning Castrol Nissan Altima from the 2019 season.
The first series of episodes will focus on their rebuild of a Harley-Davidson drift trike, which starts out as a burnt-out wreck.
“I love working in the shed with Dad, we can pretty much build anything in there,” Lex Kelly said.
“The projects we are working on are pretty crazy, I personally don’t think some of them will work, but we’ll see.
“We have so many cool tools to use, my favourite one to work with would have to be the welder. It’s good working on the machines, but filming Dad with my Lex Cam is pretty cool too!”
Castrol serves as the series’ presenting partner, continuing Kelly’s long-term relationship with the brand dating back to his days driving for Kmart Racing in the early 2000s.
“It’s also very exciting to work with Castrol on this project,” Kelly added.
“Our relationship stretches back 20 years and it’s an honour to continue to represent Castrol after my Supercars journey with them.”
The first episode of Hell-Bent Garage is scheduled to be released on August 21 on its dedicated YouTube channel, as well as Rick Kelly’s and Castrol’s social media channels.
