Nulon Oil’s David Sieders has come agonisingly close to a podium return on the streets of Townsville for Round 4 of the Yokohama V8 Ute Series – protected by Armor All this weekend.
Sieders, who won the opening round of the Series in Adelaide, went into the final race of the weekend only three points out of third position, but was unable to progress up the standings any further, finishing the weekend in fourth.
“By no means was it a bad weekend, I’m just hungry to get back on top of the podium, and I know I am more than capable of doing so,” said Sieders.
“Some people are more than happy to run inside the Top 5, but, plain and simple, my job here is to win, and I’m not doing that at the moment.”
David “Sideways” Sieders started in fourth place for Race 3 this afternoon, and after a good start, he maintained his position for the majority of the race despite being under heavy attack.
“I was really happy with the start in Race 3 today,” said Sieders, “I was able to stay relatively close to the front three cars, but our tyre pressure was a little too high towards the end of the race, and I was just unable to hold out [Kim] Jane and [Chris] Pither in the final laps”.
In contrast to the afternoon session, Sieders was slow off the line in this morning's race, but was able to fight his way into third position, until being punted from behind by Brad “The General” Patton, who then pulled up in the run-off a few turns later and retired from the race.
“Race 2 was a pretty hard fought race, made harder after I lost two places by the end of the first lap,” said Sieders, “I made it all the way back up to third, however, three laps from the end of the race, I was collected from behind and dropped back a few spots again, but I managed to recover one for a second fifth placing this weekend”.
Currently leading the SS Inductions Rookie of the Year standings, Sieders managed to get through a turn one bottleneck and race onto fifth position, later being promoted to fourth after Ryal "The Kid" Harris was given a 17 second time penalty post race.
“I got off the line well and had good pace, in Race 1," said Sieders, "I was right on the tail of the guys in front of me, and going down into turn two I was able to slip through to the inside of the track and had a really good race.”
The Yokohama V8 Ute Series now has a nine week break before it resumes in September, as a support category to the first of the V8 Supercar Championship’s Enduro Rounds, and David Sieders is looking forward to the competition returning to some more familiar circuits.
“We’re only just at the halfway point of the season, and three of the tracks to come I know quite well, including Phillip Island where Andrew [Fisher] and I raced in the V8 Supercars last year with the Enduro Wildcard, also where the Utes haven’t competed since 2007”.
David Sieders now sits in fourth position in the Series on 381, only 38 points behind stable-mate Andrew “Fishtail” Fisher (Jesus Racing), and 90 points away from the Series lead of Grant “Grunta” Johnson.
“There are two cars out of the same team with drivers dominating the series at the moment, but there are two cars prepared by the Sieders Racing Team right behind them, and we’ll be pushing for that same honour until the final lap of the final race.”
