Six drivers are in contention to win the 2013 Auto One V8 Ute Racing Series – protected by ARMOR ALL, and take out the ENZED Drivers Championship Trophy at the Grand Finale Round next weekend 6 – 8 December at the Sydney 500, NSW.
With140 points up for grabs over the weekend, and only 101 points between first and sixth place, reigning Champion Ryal Harris is leading and will be looking to walk away with back-to-back titles. Only two other drivers have achieved this.
(Warren Luff 2002/2003, Damien White 2004/2005). Grant Johnson also has two titles under his belt but they were three years apart (2007/2010).
“Obviously that’s the goal, (to go back-to-back) it would be pretty special to do it. It’s my first year with Tapout and my second year with Big Gun (Racing) so it would be good to reward them with a win. We just have to stay out of trouble, qualify well and do well in the first race, then the rest is staying clean but that’s easier said than done,” said Harris.
Harris is only 39 points in front of Rhys McNally, who has been the quiet achiever this year; Although he has been on podium four times, he has only scored himself one race win and three podium race finishes, however he has stayed consistent and out of trouble all year and is really excited to be so close to the championship title.
“I didn’t imagine we’d end up here, Clipsal started off well, which set the tone for the rest of the season. Last year we were struggling and didn’t know what we were doing wrong, we weren’t even sure we would come back but with a new structure within the team its really turned things around. It would be nice to beat Nathan (Pretty) and be the first Holden home, but he has a lot of miles under his belt. When you look at the Gold Coast, it proved anything can happen. We’re just going to keep our nose clean and fight hard, we don’t want to throw away second or winning the championship,” said McNally.
If you looked at his statistics this year with four round wins, three pole wins, five race wins and five podium race finishes, Nathan Pretty should be leading the Series, however qualifying sessions have plagued him this year. A blown engine in qualifying at the Perth (Round 2) and a disqualification from Qualifying in Bathurst (due to his Ute being underweight by 1kg), the Victorian has had to battle to stay in the top three (sitting 2 points shy of McNally in second).
“Ryal’s (Harris) been lucky with the other contenders dropping off around him with penalties etc. He’s had a dream run this year, we’ve had problems both-ends, a credit to them if they can go through missing the drama’s we’ve had. We’re getting a game plan together and are going to just go for it, give it all we’ve got,” said Pretty.
Sieders seems to be getting the title that Jack Elsegood adopted ‘always the bridesmaid, never the bride,” placing second outright the past two years. Sieders will be out for a vengeance especially after losing 70 championship points following the Race 3 crash on the Gold Coast last month.
“We’re going to go hard or go home. We just have to try be out in front and do the best we can and if the others make a mistake that’s great for us. Ryal has a healthy lead at the moment it’s his to lose and so far everyone that has had it the lead this year has lost it so anything can happen,” said Sieders.
Walton and Jane are on equal points (681) coming into the final round, Jane has three race wins and three podiums under his belt, and if he hadn’t missed all three races, due to an incident in Race 1 at Clipsal, he would be in a lot better shape right now.
“Having the start we had to the year, a podium finish would be unreal. The Championship title would be great but I’d be happy with a top three,” said Jane.
This would be Jane’s first podium finish since 2008, where he placed 2nd overall. Walton is yet to have a podium finish and is optimistic about walking away with the trophy this year. .
“No I didn’t think we would win at the start of the year, I didn’t even think that in the middle of the year. We’re just going to try and finish up the front like we have the last few rounds. We’ll go down and try and finish off really well for the year for Rentco and start again in 2014,” said Walton.
The two drivers will be looking for their first championship win and Kim Jane his first podium since 2008, when he claimed second overall.
Only 29 cars will take to the grid at this event. Cam Wilson will not return due to injuries from his accident on the Gold Coast, where his car was a complete right off. Adam Marjoram’s ute was also caught up in the incident and the Perth rookie will return in another Williams Race Tech prepared Holden, formerly driven by Layton Barker on the Gold Coast. Sieders will steer Gary MacDonald’s Ford, driven by Yanis Derum’s last round, also saying goodbye to his Ford FG from the same incident.
Michael Almond will return to the field, this time driving Clifton Campbell’s Holden. (Formerly driven by Tony Longhurst and George Miedecke.)
The action will begin on Friday, 6th December when the drivers take to the track for two practise sessions.
See below his schedule for the Sydney 500 weekend: Friday, 6th December Practice 1 10:30amFriday, 6th December Practice 2 5:10pmSaturday, 7th December Qualifying 9:40amSaturday, 8th December Race 1 1:30pmSaturday, 8th December Race 2 5:35pmSunday, 9th December Race 3 10:50am
