Despite crashing into the concrete walls on the Adelaide Parklands Street Circuit today, David Sieders has pushed his Australian Industrial Supplies Ute to the limits to claim the opening round of the Auto One V8 Ute Series - protected by Armor All this weekend, 17 - 20th March.

Dominating the opening three days of the weekend, having taken Pole and the first win of the season, the 26 year old from Penrith backed up with another Race Win on Saturday, and struggled across the line to take away the Championship Lead with 149 points.

"What a phenomenal weekend," said Sieders, "Our car was extremely quick all weekend, with the fastest lap in every session but the final race, and it's a real credit to the way the guys have prepped this car".

"We left here with the Championship Lead on debut last year, and I'm stoked to have backed-up and done it again, although a straighter car to take home would have been better."

In Saturday's race, Sieders initially skipped away to create a one second buffer on the opening lap, back to the Round Runner-Up, Ryal Harris, and was never challenged for the lead, securing his second win for the season. As Sieders and Harris pulled away from the rest of the pack, the race winner found more speed after three laps behind the safety car, resetting the lap record to 1:37.196, blasting the old time set in 2010 by Chris Pither out of the water by 0.8 seconds.

"Harris had been gaining pace all weekend, and starting on the front row with him was going to be a challenge," said Sieders, "the set-up for my car wasn't great for the opening lap, but it was a great package once the tyres came up to pressure".

"The car's got phenomenal pace out here, and although I had been close to the lap record in previous sessions, I wasn't going out there to break it, so I was pretty surprised, and definitely pleased."

Closing out the weekend, the weather had turned cool, and with spots of light drizzle by mid-morning, the clouds really began to open up as the V8 Utes began to head out for the grid, making for a thrilling fight for the Round One honours. Getting a good start in the wet, it was up to Sieders to pioneer the racing line for the 31 car field behind him, but with the benefit going to the guys behind him he soon yielded the lead to a flying Ryal Harris on lap two. "I was happy to let Ryal [Harris] go," said Sieders,

"with the points system this year, there was no point scrapping over one point, especially with seven up my sleeve." In atrocious conditions, visibility went to almost zero with demister issues plaguing the majority of the field, and the rain coming down heavily on lap seven of eight, in a race that over a third of the field did not finish.

"Our demister wasn't working in the car, which sounds like the same problem that a lot of the field had, effectively white-washing the windscreen." Sieders' sensational efforts all weekend almost came undone on the infamous turn eight when, on the final lap of the race and in third position, a slippery racing line and standing water saw the #8 Australian Industrial Supplies Falcon hit the wall hard, moving the concrete barriers out of alignment and crippling the car.

"I backed right off on the final lap because I was struggling to see anything, and with course-wide yellow flags, I knew I was safe from being overtaken," said Sieders, "It's just lucky that I hit the wall at 80km/hour not 180km/hour." "The track wasn't too bad until you got to that back section and back straight where there is just so many of those painted lines on the road and standing water everywhere, and that's ultimately what sent me into the wall." Destroying his front left suspension, Sieders was six turns from the home straight with a car that was barely running, slowly losing his round winning lead with every passing car, but was determined to scrape something together.

"I could barely turn right, and there were two to come, so I put a little power down and managed to just get around them," said Sieders, "I had the guys on the radio telling me to bring it across the line no matter what, and I wasn't thinking anything different".

 Limping to the line, Sieders counted as he was passed by three cars, and narrowly by a fourth at the line, dropping to seventh position for the race, however, his 26 points enough to hold onto the round win by two points from Ryal Harris, who finished second in the race behind reigning Champion Grant Johnson. "Struggling to get the car across the line, I was just waiting to get swamped, and I was just hoping I'd get there and score enough points to at least get on the podium for the round."

"With all the work the guys put in this weekend to get the car to where it was, it would have been a travesty to not finish the race, and going home with the round win is a real credit to the team."

The Auto One V8 Ute Series - protected by Armor All next heads across the continent to Barabagallo Raceway for the first time since... for Round Two, 29th April - 1st May. "We've got a lot of work to do now, effectively rebuilding the front of the car, but at least the Championship challenge is off to a great start, and I think that it's going to be a tough year to hold onto the lead."

AUTO ONE V8 UTE SERIESCHAMPIONSHIP LEADERBOARDPos DRIVER MAKE Pts

1 DAVID SIEDERS FORD 149 2 Ryal Harris FORD 147 3 Chris Pither HOLDEN 136 4 Grant Johnson HOLDEN 130 5 Craig Dontas HOLDEN 128 6 Jeremy Gray FORD 127 7 Andrew Fisher FORD 125 8 Charlie O'Brien FORD 112 9 Ryan Hansford FORD 110 10 Jack Elsgood FORD 110