Career
He competed in Formula One in 1962, participating in 3 World Championship Grands Prix, and several non-Championship races. He scored no World Championship points. He also owned a Bayerische Motoren Werke dealership called Shelly Motors in Honolulu.
The business had previously belonged to Shelly"s father and had been sold on his death.
Shelly subsequently re-acquired the business and became an American citizen in 1975. He divided his time between a home in Honolulu and one in New Zealand, where he died.
Shelly made his motor racing debut in January 1955, entering a Morgan in the Sports Carolina class for the New Zealand Grand Prix. Shelly qualified but did not start the race.
He drove mainly for John Dalton, usually in non-championship events with moderate success, a fifth in the Lombank Trophy and a third in the Lavant Cup being the highlights of his season.
He also entered three Formula One World championship events, at Aintree, where he retired with a failed cylinder head gasket, and at the Nürburgring and Monza, where he failed to qualify on each occasion. At the end of the season he returned to New Zealand where he continued to race in 1963 and 1964 following which he retired, although he did compete occasionally thereafter.