David “Sideways” Sieders has had a hard fought battle to take out third place in the shortened opening race for Round 7 of the Yokohama V8 Ute Series – protected by Armor All on the streets of Surfer’s Paradise today.

Starting in front of the field, Sieders was able to get off the line well, but found himself in a tough battle with his Nulon Oil Ford Falcon XR8, dropping two spots before the first corner and setting himself up with a race-long battle with Jack “The Hustler” Elsgood.

“I had one of my best starts today,” said Sieders, “the car got off the line really well, but missing third gear allowed Chris [Pither] and Grant [Johnson] to get past”.

“We were one to two-tenths of a second faster than the leading cars on Lap 2, but I had a massive lock-up in the following lap, which cost me the chance to catch them, and instead had to concentrate on staying ahead of Jack [Elsgood]”.

Due to the V8 Supercars’ qualifying session running almost half an hour late before the V8 Ute’s race today, the session was shortened to seven laps, from 12, a change that almost certainly protected Sieders’ position.

“By the end of the session I’d say that we effectively had no third gear left, and the front right tyre is barely in tact, so to hold onto third place and to have also recorded the third fastest lap for the session, I’m pretty happy with that.”

Finishing ahead of the Championship’s second and third placed entries of Jack Elsgood and Andrew Fisher in both qualifying and today’s race, Sieders’ now sits 34 and five points behind the pair, respectively, with a maximum of 78 points available in tomorrow’s two races.

“The Championship lead has slipped a little further away after today’s race,” said Sieders, “but if we can keep making up points on Jack [Elsgood] and Andrew [Fisher], there’s a real chance of finishing in third or second position for the year, which would be amazing”.

Sieders will start tomorrow’s reverse grid race in seventh position, with the top nine finishing positions from today’s race inverted.

“Tomorrow will be really interesting,” said Sieders, “it’s a really tight track, with very little opportunities to pass...throw in a reverse grid and all sorts of things can happen”.

The final day of Round 7 for the Yokohama V8 Ute Series will start at 10:00am tomorrow, with the first race of the day broadcast on Network Seven at 11:00am (QLD Time), and finish with the final race at 12:10pm.

“We’ve got great pace in our car, if we can use that and stay out of trouble, it should be another good overall result.”