.David “Sideways” Sieders has been punted into fifth position in the Yokohama V8 Ute Series – protected by Armor All after a disappointing outing for Round 3 of the competition at Hidden Valley Raceway in Darwin (NT) this weekend, 18-20th June 2010.The 25-year-old from Western Sydney, who was knocked around in the opening race on Saturday, found himself feeling the glass ceiling effect for the final two races, with his Nulon-backed Ford Falcon XR8 experiencing engine problems.
“The word for the weekend had to be horsepower,” said Sieders, “Hidden Valley is a bit of a dragway to race at, and in general the Holdens have better drive than the Fords, so this was always going to be a tough weekend at this track”.“From the data, we could see that I had a much better entry onto the main straight compared to the car we prepare for Andrew Fisher, but with my car at its limits, it was 10km per hour slower down the straight, which is a lot of time to lose on such a long straight.”
Sieders started Race 2 in 22nd position after being knocked around in the opening race, and was able to capitalise on an early bottleneck to finish in 13th.
“I got a good start in Race 2, and managed to get a dream run around the turn 1 chaos,” said Sieders, “I got in front of some of the Race 1 leaders, and would have pushed through, but I just needed more horsepower”.In the final race, Sieders had made some good moves early in the race with the assistance of some set-up changes, but a safety car intervention, after Queenslander Peter Burnitt rolled his car, saw the Rookie slip back on the restart and finish 14th overall for the weekend.
“With the engine not performing we tried throwing a set-up change at the car to maximise what we did have, and it was really working,” said Sieders, “I really needed the race to keep running, but unfortunately the safety car came out, and I was swamped in the restart”.
The Sieders Racing Team will head straight across from Darwin to the next round of the Championship on the streets of Townsville in under three weeks time (9-11th July 2010).
“We plan on bolting in a new engine when we get to Townsville, and then with that issue resolved I’ll be working hard to put myself back on the podium.”
