Colin Sieders has been robbed of a likely Top 15 finish, by the very streets of Townsville that have propelled him back into the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Development Series this weekend.
Backed by a number of local businesses, Colin’s ‘City of Townsville’ Falcon had an uphill battle to finish 19th in Race 1 today, after he was turned around at the first corner of the first lap.
“I got an unreal start,” said Colin Sieders, “I managed to grab about four spots off the line, which probably cost us in the end, as it put me in the position to be hit from the guys I just passed”.
“Two of the cars I passed at the start finished well inside the Top 15, so it is really disappointing to not have finished near the Top 10,” said Sieders, “but overall, I’ve made some great progress over the weekend so far, and I’m really enjoying being behind the wheel again.”
Despite being turned around, Colin was able to get his car up four positions to 18th before the safety car was deployed, and another two spots off the restart.
“A number of cars were tangled up in the front of the field collision, so it was good to rejoin the race in 18th, and not lose some of the good work I put in,” said Sieders, “when the safety car peeled off, a couple of guys in front just appeared to be down on pace and I was able to get the car up to 16th”.
As a result of the first turn incident, Colin was given a mechanical black flag for loose bodywork that forced him into the pits, losing two laps in the process and returning to the track in the same position he started the race.
“The officials called us into the pits to fix some loose bodywork,” said Sieders, “it took the guys two laps to remove the offending side skirting, but unfortunately that’s their call to make and we ultimately missed out on an otherwise great result due to other people's mistakes at the start”.
With six cars retiring from the race, and a further three off the lead lap, Colin managed to work his way back past some other cars that had visited pit lane during the race, finishing his first outing since October 2009 just inside the Top 20.
“After losing two laps I was just keen to get as much out of the car as possible,” said Sieders, “I strung together two green sectors on lap 11 to get my best time for the race, and managed to get past Rodney Jane twice, so things are looking good going forward”.
Colin started today’s race in 22nd after a solid performance in the morning’s qualifying, a result overshadowed by the influx of new drivers, mostly Main Series’ Co-Drivers, at the front of the field, three of which bettered the lap record in the same session.
“We had a loose connector through practice that meant we were only running on one fuel pump yesterday,” said Sieders, “thankfully we fixed the issue and found over a second for qualifying today, whilst pole less than half a second faster than the fastest practice lap yesterday”.
Colin will start from a couple of rows further up the grid in 19th for Race 2 (scheduled for at 10:10am tomorrow), and is determined to get the car up to the front half of the field by the end of Race 3, which starts at 4:05pm.
“We’ve had great support from the people of Townsville this weekend, and I really want to thank them by getting their car into the Top 10.”
