Dave Sideways Sieders has finished the 2012 in second place for the Auto One V8 Ute Seriesprotected by Armor All, with a tough fought outright third in the final round on the Homebush Street Circuit this weekend, 30 November2nd December.
On a weekend when the 28 year old from Londonderry needed a few things to continue to swing his way, lady luck decided otherwise and Sieders was unable to bridge a 15 point gap to Ryal Harris, finishing second outright for the second year in a row.
Its a little frustrating to have come from so far and get so close, said Sieders, three or four rounds ago we probably thought the Championship was a bit of a long shot, but weve continued to work hard and got within 9 points this weekend, but we just couldnt get there in the end.
We were really unfortunate to have a few issues early in the year, like the electrical issue shutting the car down in the lead of the opening race at Adelaide, and the broken hub sending us into the sand at Perth, not to mention recovering from a dislocated knee leading into Tasmania.
Despite not managing to finish the year in the number one position, Sieders is pretty happy with the results the Team was able to secure throughout the season.
All year we were consistently the fastest Ford on track, which was one of our main goals, said Sieders, we recorded the most pole positions, most lap records, and most round podiums for the Series, in fact we didnt missed a podium since Darwin, including a win in there for the Gold Coast, but we just missed checking one critical box and in the Championship Title.
In Fridays qualifying session, Sieders was on a flying lap at the start of the session, but was forced to abandon it after he found traffic in the final sector, but was able to move into third position two laps later, before being spun around with only five minutes remaining in the session by Harris who ended up in sixth after a last lap flyer.
I had a really good lap together out of the box, but came up on two cars side by side in the final sector and had to abort my lap and try to string it together on the next two laps when the tyres probably werent at their optimum, said Sieders, the plan coming into the round was to score four points each session on Ryal and we did exactly that.
In race one, Sieders battled front end suspension issues after being forced over the turn two chicanes, but managed to hold his place, although it allowed Harris to catch up and finish one place behind in fourth.
"The car was clanging and clunking on both left and right turns after going over the speed humps at [turn] two, said Sieders, I was waiting for it to break, but we managed to make it home and bank two more points on Ryal for the Championship, not the four we needed, but every one counts.
The Top 12 finishers for race one were inverted for the start of race two, which saw Sieders alongside Harris in positions 10 and nine on the grid, and a, career best start, saw Sieders up two places off the start, however, a mid-pack incident including round leader Cam McConville caused the session to be red flagged and abandoned, with no points counting.
"It was really frustrating having that session deemed a non-event, said Sieders, I reckon I had a really good shot at getting up to a podium spot, and with Cam [McConville] out of the race, I would have been leading the round and starting race three from Pole.
A good start from position three for the final race saw Sieders into turn one ahead of Harris, who dropped behind Craig Dontas and allowed Sieders to pull away with Nathan Pretty and Cam McConville, with all three under lap record pace.
A gearbox issue on the final lap could have been disastrous, with Sieders unable to use second or fourth gears and dropping through the field, but a seventh placing was kept him on the podium with third outright.
With no points in race two, we had to try to get nine points in the last race on Ryal, said Sieders, it wasnt going to be impossible, but with him only two spots behind we werent going to get there, and when the gearbox went, I was just glad that we managed to hold onto third for the weekend.
The V8 Ute Series will celebrate their season tonight at the Kirribili Club, and will return to the track at the 2013 Clipsal 500 in March.
We will have a really good night with everyone now that the season is done, and take a bit of time out before getting it all together to start again in Adelaide in a few months time.
