AIS National's David Sieders will be looking to make history when he hits the streets if Adelaide for the season opener of the 2012 Auto One V8 Ute Series - protected by Armor All this weekend, 1-4 March 2012.
The 2011 Ute Series Runner-Up has taken the Armor All Pole Position and opening round win for the past two seasons, and a repeat performance will give him the most round wins on the Adelaide Parklands Circuit for category over 12 years.
"Adelaide has just really worked for me," said Sieders, "it's a really tough track, which I love racing on...Our results here have been great, but they certainly don't come easy in this concrete jungle."
"The hype around the stats are interesting, and it is a little exciting, but at the end of the day my goal is to come away from Adelaide with the best possible result to get our season started in the right direction, but mostly I'm just excited to getting out there on the track again."
Sieders will debut his new FG XR8 Ute at Adelaide, however, an unforeseen shipping delay with the new Coyote engines from America has prevented any opportunity to test the new racecar prior to the event.
"We had a delay in getting our engine over and into the car, so I've missed out on testing the car properly, but I'm not too phased by it; the Sieders Racing Team were the first ones to develop the FG Ute Programme at the Bathurst 12 Hour, and we've recently completed Andrew Fisher's FG and tested that, so I'm confident there'll be no issues come race day."
With an impeccable record at the track, which also includes three race wins from five solo races and the track lap record, Sieders' confidence is also boosted by his knowledge of the track and involvement with the FG programme.
"We've also been an integral part of the technical committee with the introduction of the FG," said Sieders, "I also spent time in the prototype last year, and turned a lot more laps than I had in any Ute before my debut round in 2010.
As current weather forecasts for the weekend predict showers on Saturday and Sunday, Sieders is hopeful that he doesn't have to repeat last year's 'fairy tale' round win.
"The conditions in the last race last year were horrendous," said Sieders, "like a lot of the field, we ended up in the wall on the final lap, but managed to get across the line on three wheels and win the round by two points...I know a win's a win, but I'd like to avoid any major damage this time around."
The 2012 V8 Ute Series begins with a full schedule on Thursday, 1st March that includes two practice sessions (08.30 and 13.05) before finishing the day with Qualifying at 17.05, and then one race per day on Friday (17.25), Saturday (12.10) and Sunday (11.50) with the weekend's races broadcast as live as part of the Raceday Extra Programme on Channel Seven, beginning at 13.00 on Saturday and 13.30 on Sunday (Broadcast times shown as AEDST - check local guides).
"I'm going to be doing everything humanly possible to stand atop the podium again at Adelaide and give my new racecar the perfect debut."
