A flawless start to the weekend has ended in heartache on Sunday for Mine Site Fencing Australia’s Dave Sieders on the streets of the Gold Coast for round seven of the Auto One V8 Ute Series – protected by Armor All this weekend, 25-27th October 2013.
Bagging his third pole position at Surfers Paradise, 29 year old Sieders won his fifteenth V8 Ute career race win on Saturday and had extended his lead in the Series, however, the weekend went from bad to worst on Sunday and pushed him back to second in the Championship.
“It was just an absolutely devastating day yesterday,” said Sieders, “with pole and the race win straight up, we were hoping to back up last year’s efforts with a second round win here and head to Sydney with a good Championship lead”.
“This track is so tight and if you get it wrong it’s unforgiving,” said Sieders, “you never want to see an accident like we did yesterday, but thankfully everyone is ok”.In Saturday’s race, Sieders was untroubled as he lead a lights to flag victory, quickly opening up an advantage that allowed him to conserve his tyres, whilst being able to push if he had to, which extended his lead up to 18 points.
“Definitely the best way to get around this track is to get to the front and keep away from all the other cars,” said Sieders, “I managed to get two seconds ahead of Pretty, and when I lost time with lapped traffic I was able to punch out another [lap time of one minute] 25, so we had pace there if we needed it.”
The reverse grid lotto saw Sieders starting race two from ninth position, but a pinched right front on the opening run to the first chicane hampered his ability to move through the field.
Although racing in eighth position would have been enough for a front row start in the final race, on the final turn of lap 12, Jessie Dixon couldn’t pull his ute up and collided with Sieders after driving through the tyre bundle on the inside of the apex, which spun the then-Series leader around and left him to finish 21st, and five points behind in the Championship.
“I guess I needed to be half a second faster on that lap,” said Sieders, “there was absolutely nowhere for me to go, and if he didn’t hit me he would have been straight in the wall, but a rookie error like that has undone all of our hard work to get into the Series lead”.
Starting from eighth position for the final race, with the new Series leader sitting on pole, Sieders was out to consolidate as many points as possible, however, he was one of several cars caught up in a major accident off the back chicane that blocked the track and brought out the red flags, deeming it a non-race and no points awarded.
“There is a lot of work to be done by the boys ahead of Homebush,” said Sieders, “I don’t think there is much that can be done with that car, so we’ll have to build a new one, or look at other options available when we get back home”.
