About the TrackLength: 3.4kmCircuit Direction: Anti-clockwiseV8 Ute Top Average Speed: 114km/hV8 Ute Lap Record: 1:45.5326 set by Cameron McConville in Race 3 (2012)Fastest point: Turn 1, end of pit straight Slowest Point: Mid-corner, last 2 turns (12/13)
Brief description of the circuit: Winding its way around the Sydney Olympic Park complex which hosted the 2000 Olympic Games. Track designers, including five-time Series Champion Mark Skaife, focused on creating a real challenge for the drivers, with a variety of bumps, camber changes and fast and slow corners making it difficult to complete the perfect lap.
1) The Sydney NRMA Motoring & Services 500 marks the final Round (out of 8) of the 2013 Auto One V8 Ute Racing Series – protected by ARMOR ALL.
2) Six drivers are still in contention for the Series title including; Ryal Harris (782), Rhys McNally (743), Nathan Pretty (741), David Sieders (706), Kim Jane (681) and Kris Walton (681) with 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 and Damien White 2004/2005). Grant Johnson also has two titles under his belt but they were three years apart (2007/2010).
Points up for Grabs: 140Qualifying 1st= 35 points 2nd = 33 points 3rd = 31 points 4th = 29 points; it then reduces one point for every position to 32nd placeRace 1 1st As AboveRace 2 1st As AboveRace 3 1st As Above
3) Finals history:
Grant Johnson and Jack Elsegood have the strongest rivalry in V8 Ute finals history. In 2007, Coopers Clear Racing’s Elsegood was leading the Series heading into the final round and had the title in the bag until he had issues with the car in the final race, giving Johnson the title. Elsegood however was able to redeem himself in 2009 claiming the title after the Sydney Street Race.
In 2010 Grant Johnson was leading the Series by 86 points heading into the round, which was almost guaranteeing him the title over then reigning champion Jack Elsegood. However the weekend was given a shake-up after Johnson was excluded from Qualifying and Race 1 over that weekend due to a front brake line infringement, which put Elsegood within 20 points of the leader heading into the final two races. Johnson was forced to start from the rear of the grid for Race 2 and he fearlessly drove to an amazing fifth place finish, salvaging some valuable points and assuring that he would start a little further up the order for Race Three.
Elsegood started on the front row of the final race alongside Charlie O’Brien but he was unable to beat the veteran and had to settle for second in the race and in the Championship.
Johnson cautiously moved to 15th position, a result that saw him clinch the overall Championship win.
Ryal Harris was close to the title in 2011, until mechanical issues forced him out of Race 2, handing the series win to Chris Pither with David Sieders in second overall. Harris went home with third for the year and so began his rivalry with Sieders.
Sieders is taking over Elsegood’s mantle - “always a Bridesmaid, never a Bride.” He has placed 2nd overall 2 years in a row (2011 and 2012), and after losing his lead in the Series following the Gold Coast event (Sieders was penalized 70 championship points for causing an incident in Race 3) he is now in fourth place.
3) A re-cap on the Championship Lead this year: Ryal Harris has held the lead for the majority of the year (5 rounds) but only just. Pretty had the title after claiming the first round of the year until Harris swept in and took the lead off Pretty who was unfortunate to have engine troubles and was unable to compete in the Qualifying session in Perth. Harris held onto the lead after Round 3 in Darwin and again after Townsville and Sandown. Pretty would have taken back the lead after Qualifying at Bathurst, but due to being underweight by 1kg was disqualified from that session. David Sieders had almost a clean sweep of the round, and walked away with the Series lead until the Gold Coast, Race 3, when he caused an accident and was penalised 70 Championship Points, dropping him to fourth. Going unnoticed on the ENZED Drivers Championship Leaderboard was Rhys McNally, who although hasn’t lead the Series yet, is sitting in second coming into the final Round. McNally only has one Race win under his belt but managed to stand on Podium four times this year.
4) Elliot Barbour has claimed the 2013 Yokohama V8 Ute Rookie of the Year Award winning a test in an Erebus Motorsport Car. His points tally cannot be matched by rival’s Adam Marjoram, Jesse Dixon and Matt Nolan. Barbour sits only 5 points shy of 10th place heading into the final round.
5) Cameron “Conkers” McConville was unstoppable last year; he set a new Qualifying record in a time of 1:45.5081, and also set a new Race lap record in Race 1, broke it again in Race 3 and holds it in a time of 1:45.5326 (the only driver to go under 1:46 during a race). George Miedecke set the first lap record in a V8 Ute around Sydney Olympic Park, back in 2009 in a time of 1:47.9107.
6) There are three new additions to the field this round, V8 Ute Veteran Denis Cribbin will return to the field for the first time since Sydney 2011 and will steer the #41 Holden that was driven by ‘Spud’ Wood at the past two rounds. Michael ‘Magic’ Almond is also back for his second round in a V8 Ute, the last time he drove was at Sandown and the South Aussie placed 7th overall for the weekend.
Jack “Ace” Le Brocq will also steer a V8 Ute for the second time when he takes the reins of Warren Millets Wake-up Holden, the last time the Erebus Academy Motorsport Driver raced in a V8 Ute was at Sydney last year as a recipient of the Chris Pither powered by Ice-Break scholarship. Debuting in a V8 Ute this round is Dylan Thomas; Thomas has competed in the Aussie Racing Cars, MINI Challenge, Formula Vee, Australian Manufacturers Championship and Tarmac Rallies and will step behind the wheel of former V8 Ute Champion Jack Elsegood’s Ford.
7) The Utes have raced at Sydney since the events inception in 2009 with Ford dominating taking out three of the four years.
8) Only 29 V8 Utes will take to the Grid at this round (Cam Wilson’s Ford, Adam Marjoram’s Holden and David Sieders Ford were all written off following the Gold Coast accident. Seven out of 29 drivers have competed on the Sydney Olympic Park circuit before.
9) Seven drivers out of the 32 are from Sydney including; Denis Cribbin, Gary MacDonald, David Sieders, Dylan Thomas, Jesus Racing’s Andrew Fisher, Ben Dunn, and Jeremy Gray hails from Musselbrook in the Hunter Valley region.
10) In 2010, the V8 Utes had their first driver from Japan compete in the Series - Japanese GT driver Ryo Omire. Omire nicknamed himself “Hamburger” as he didn’t’ want to end up squished like a Hamburger when racing. Unfortunately when he took to the track in Race 1 he clouted the wall hard at Turn 8, setting off a chain reaction that claimed Sieders, Fisher, Kim Jane, Gary MacDonald and Nandi Kiss.
Orime’s Holden was totally destroyed, while Jane suffered damaged to the front and rear along with Sieders who took his car to a panel shop to get worked on overnight.
11) Race 2 in 2012 was deemed a non-race after a red flag fell following separate incidents involving a quarter of the field. The incident almost handed Harris the win, with 35 points taken off the table, Harris only had to bring his car home in 15th or better in Race 3 to win the championship. He did even better than that coming home in 4th in the final race.
12) After 11 years Gary “Chucky” Baxter will retire from V8 Ute Racing. Baxter joined the Series in 2002 and full-time in 2003 debuting at his home-track at the Clipsal 500. The South Aussie claimed third overall in the Series in 2004 and 2005 and has never missed around in the entire 11 years. He has driven under the Sage banner the whole time he has raced in the Series and the part-time stunt driver will be missed both on and off the track.
