V8 Utes Excalibur Sticks One In

At Oran Park V8 Ute Driver Yanis Derum’s may very well be spending his last round of the 2008 Yokohama V8 Utes Racing Series on the sideline.

During a practise session at Oran Park on Monday,  the Sydney based driver was going too hard into the second last corner of the circuit (otherwise known as the dog leg corner), and  hit the wall at about 140km/hour in the Kanga Loaders Holden Commodore.

According to Team Manager Wayne Williams, the damage was substantial.

“The firewall was bent and all the front and rear end pushed across, the seats were bent and the motor was destroyed.

“It is devastating after we just finished re-building the car after our incident at Bathurst and we’ll have to re-build it again. We’ll just have to see how we go,” said Williams.

Derums who was a little dizzy after the incident was more ashamed than anything.

“I am more embarrassed than anything. I have sore ribs and sore shins and my vision was a bit blurry but i think my ego was more dented.

“I pushed the car and myself too hard and now the car is fairly mangled but we will do our best to get it back,” said Derums.

All vying for their final spots in the series, at least three quarters of the V8 Utes field turned out for the practise day and were all eager to find out their fastest results.

Jack Elsegood, Grant Johnston, George Miedecke, Kim Jane and Layton Crambrook were just some of the frontrunners that tested on the day.Series leader Layton Crambrook and current runner up Kim Jane were on par in their lap times and will look to go head to head for the overall title in December.

The final round of the 2008 V8 Utes Racing Series will run from Thursday 4th December and finish with the final race on Sunday, 7th December.

Race Two, which will be raced on Saturday, 6th December, will be televised live on the Seven Network at 11:25am.

Top Five Standings 2008 V8 Utes Racing Series:

 Layton Crambrook #71 Lamont Constructions Racing 632   Kim Jane #27 Kim Jane Racing 589  Grant Johnson #1 Grove Juice Racing 533  Gary Baxter #3 Sage Automation Racing 507  Ryal Harris #58 Global Trader Racing 465

Top Three Rookies of The Year Standings:

Glenn McNally #12 High Tech Motorsport  368  Ben Kavich #26 Grease Monkey Motorsport   228  Michael Bartsch # 8 WPR Racing  164

Round Eight - Oran Park Schedule

 Thursday, 4th December 10am Practice One   1:30pm Practice Two   4:35pm  Qualifying   Friday, 5th December 12:20pm Race One  Saturday, 6th December 11:25am Race Two  Sunday, 7th December 9:30am Race Three


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