Sieders climb tough at Mount Panorama
LAST weekend’s penultimate round of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series at Mount Panorama won’t go down as the Sieders Racing Team best race weekend.
After a promising build up to the meeting, things got tough in the sessions that mattered, dropping the Gulf Western Oils Falcons of Colin and David to lowly finishing positions.
It certainly wasn’t how the family-run V8 team had envisaged its weekend panning out. After unveiling the collectable charity V8 Supercar Bear (which raises money for CareFlight), and with Colin’s new car debuting in identical Gulf Western Oils colours to David’s, the team had hoped for better luck, but it wasn’t to be.
The highlight of the round came was David’s qualifying performance. The 24 year old placed his #19 ex-Steven Ellery BA 14th on the grid, and that should have been better, if not for issues with traffic on his lap.
A CDI box mulfunction in Race 1 saw David classified as a non-finisher, before he stormed from the back of the 33-car field to finish 19th in the second race.
David actually started the race with wets due to the track being soaking wet in some places and dry in others. As it turned out, the rain stopped, and David pitted for slicks before making his comeback.
For Colin Sieders, it was a frustrating weekend. The #13 Ford Falcon BA looked strong in qualifying but the team couldn’t stop the front spoiler on Colin’s car flapping. With the ill-handling car, he started down in 29th place.
Race 1 got no better. The team fitted a brand-new undertray that disintegrated after he had made his way inside the top 20. A pit stop to fix the problem cost him a result.
Race 2 saw an engine problem ruin what was already a tough weekend.
The highlight for Colin was that he took delivery of his charity V8 Supercar CareFlight Bears. Raising money and awareness for the NRMA CareFlight program, the collectable bears can be purchased over the CareFlight website – careflight.org
DAVID SIEDERS QUOTEBOOK:"It could have been better weekend,” he said.“We're disappointed to have the CDI give up the ghost like that in Race 1. It’s very unusual and it is a very rare problem, so I guess there's always a first.“Our lead up wasn't too bad. Through practice and qualifying, both our cars were good, but when it got to the race, we just didn't have any luck.“In Race 2, or what is become known as ‘The Safety Car Race’ – that was really frustrating. We only had two racing laps of actual racing.“But to come from 33rd to 19th in those two laps, was pretty good. It was just one of races.“I hope that next time we go there, we get more laps. It's a shame there were a few turkeys in that last race.”
COLIN SIEDERS QUOTEBOOK:“We were definitely stronger than what the results suggest,” he said.“My aim was to finish top 15, Dave top 10. But it didn’t really work out for us.“The best bit is that we’ve now got a really good set of barely used tyres which we can use for testing. With our home track coming at Oran Park, I think we can put up a good fight for our team and sponsors.”