Dave “Sideways” Sieders has flown the solo Ford flag in his third placing for the penultimate round of the Auto One V8 Ute Series at Winton Motor Raceway this weekend, 16-18 November 2012.With further changes imposed on the FG V8 Utes from the Gold Coast, Sieders had a hard fought battle to steer the now 1880kg race car, and was the only Ford to make the Top Five in any points session, and the overall results, as he secured his fourth consecutive podium.“That was a really tough weekend,” said Sieders, “our main focus has really been to concentrate on doing everything we can to get as many points as possible, so to take another podium is a great result for us.”“The final race had only three Fords in the Top 12, with us in fourth, [Andrew] Fisher in seventh and Ryal [Harris] in eighth, so that gives you an idea of just how tough it was for the Blue Oval this weekend”.The most important development from the weekend was that Championship Leader, Ryal Harris, struggled to overcome the new changes and failed to finish inside the Top 10 in two points sessions, which has allowed Sieders to bring the gap down to only 15 points with one round remaining.“What started out as a pretty ordinary season is now coming right down to the wire,” said Sieders, “we were aiming to get the gap to the low twenties by the end of the weekend, so it’s better than we anticipated and really applies the pressure to Harris when we go to our home track for the final”.Sieders missed the front row for Race One by 0.07s after a few early mistakes that cost him time on his best laps, finishing with a 1:38.8847 for third, with Cam McConville on Pole with a 1:38.7485 alongside Auto One Wildcard entrant Jason Bargwanna, but netted 12 points on Ryal Harris who qualified 14th.“I messed up my first two good ones, and that’s really all these cars have,” said Sieders, “it’s the only the third time this year we have started on the second row, but with Ryal struggling to overcome his understeer, we made a big gain in the Championship”.The initial running of Race One saw a very premature ending, red flagged on lap 2, after a major racing incident between five cars at turn nine on the opening lap, which sent Sieders Racing stablemate Jason Gomersall for medical treatment, where he was given the all clear.The V8 Ute Series was granted a re-run of the race at 5:30pm, following the V8 Supercars, and this time there were very little incidents, with only one car in the top five different from the starting order, leaving Sieders to finish in third.“We had some good drive early in the race, but couldn’t quite get it done on Bargs [Jason Bargwanna], with the car starting to fade in the latter part of the race.”For Race Two, Sieders started from 16th position, care of a Top 18 Reverse Grid, and made some solid moves through the field to move inside the Top 10.“We struggled with our front grip, which saw the rears go off towards the end of the race,” said Sieders, “but at the end of the day, we suffered minimal panel damage and not only held off the guys who finished ahead of us in race one, and we also got within three spots of Harris after starting nine behind, so I am pretty happy about that.”A late post race penalty to Chris Pither Scholarship recipient, Tom Williamson, robbed Sieders of a front row start for the final race, and with the Holdens getting off the line well, Sieders fell to fourth and struggled with drive out of the corners and could not manage a pass on Nathan Pretty.“I had a good start, but the Holdens around me just nailed it,” said Sieders, “we got great pace through the top of the track [turns 6-9], but there’s not really anywhere to make a move there, and couldn’t match it out of the corners with Nathan [Pretty]”.The Championship will now come down to the wire at Sieders’ home track on the streets of the Homebush Olympic Park in two weeks time, 30th November – 2nd December 2012.“We had a very strong run at Sydney last year, and there’s only a handful of points left to grab this Championship, so we will throw absolutely everything at it in front of our home crowd, friend and family.”