AIS National's XR8 Ute Driver, David Sieders, says his ambition to get back to racing a V8 Supercar has been given a major boost after testing with Paul Morris Motorsport at Queensland Raceway today, 5th September 2011.Sieders, from Londonderry in Sydney's West, was given the opportunity to get behind the wheel of the V.I.P. Petfoods VE Holden of Steve Owen today by Morris' V8 Superschool, as part of his prize for winning the 2010 Australian V8 Ute Series' Rookie of the Year."What an awesome experience," said Sieders, "I've learned a bit out there today, but more than that, it has given me some great motivation to get back into a full-time V8 Supercar drive"."I have to send a big thanks to the V8 Superschool guys for making this possible...it's great to see the commitment to fostering growth into the sport, and knowing that this was part of the prize for taking out the V8 Ute Rookie of the Year was definitely added motivation during the season.""I guess now I'll have to continue focussing on winning the Ute Championship to come back and do it again next year."Despite previous experience in both the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series and the V8 Supercar Championship, as an Enduro Wildcard entry in 2009, Sieders found today's test a real eye-opener."I haven't really been behind the wheel of any V8 Supercar since the Homebush round of the 2009 Fujitsu Series, and even then the car I raced was six years old, so to be behind the wheel of a current Championship entry was as much of a buzz as it was a good opportunity to hone my skills."Although the V8 Ute Series may have presented Sieders with today's Supercar Test, his time and focus on recording solid results in the production-based category probably hindered his early results, but he progressed quickly throughout the day."There's such a massive difference, in grip alone, between these cars and the Ute, so I found that I had probably developed a few habits that didn't help jumping into the current spec Supercar to begin with, but they were all fixable things and it was great to have such good feedback from Steve [Owen] and the Engineers."Sieders' laps in the VE Commodore were also the first time the 27-year-old has been behind the wheel of a Holden race car, but he found that it had little impact on his results."Unlike the V8 Ute Series, the Supercars don't have a lot in common with your 'off the lot' Ford or Holden, so being the first time in a Holden didn't make any real difference...it's more of a 'Triple Eight' than a Holden."With Sieders' laps forming part of Paul Morris Motorsport's official testing in the lead-up to the Endurance Rounds, Team Commercial Manager, and former V8 Ute Competitor, Scott Jennings, said that the team were very happy with his performance."It's a big challenge, jumping out of the production-based V8 Ute Series into a current V8 Supercar Championship entry, and all in all he did a good job," said Jennings."It takes our own drivers a good six to eight months to get a really good run out of these cars, and Dave did everything that was asked of him, and kept it on the track, so we can't ask for much more than that, especially at this stage of our Enduro preparation."
The Auto One V8 Ute Series will resume in 30 days (6-9th October) at the infamous Mount Panorama Street Circuit, in support to the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000, where Sieders, who currently sits fourth on the Enzed Drivers' Leader board, will focus on getting his Championship Title hunt back on track, after dropping from the lead at Townsville."We've had a real mix of results this year, with the Top Four drivers all swapping Championship Ladder positions for the first four rounds...we've been in that number one spot after two rounds already, so now we're just focussing on getting whatever results we can to be there after Round Eight."
