Six Gold Coasters will hit the streets of Surfers Paradise for the Penultimate Round of the 2014 Australian V8 Ute Racing Series – fuelled by Hogs Breath Café at next week’s Gold Coast 600 including; two-time V8 Ute Champion Ryal Harris, Series leader Kris Walton, Jesse Dixon, John ‘Spud’ Wood, Peter Burnitt and brothers Cam and Benn Wilson.
Walton, from Yatala, will be looking to increase his Series lead, currently sitting 65 points ahead of New South Welshman, David Sieders in second.
“Our main priority is championship points, Dave’s still here, it’s only a race and a half in point’s difference between us. If we have a DNF, he can take the lead and he is definitely a concern, which won’t’ go away until the last race in Sydney. We’ve always had good pace on the Goldy, however we’ve always had issues losing wheels on the curbs so I’m going to try and be conservative, but not too conservative like I did at Bathurst,” explained Walton.
Ryal Harris is sitting in seventh position in the Championship and has an impressive resume for his home event, winning five races at the Gold Coast event since 2006 including a clean-sweep with all three races and qualifying in 2011. He holds the current lap record and would love walk away with another round win.
“I love racing on the Gold Coast, it’s always so much fun and it’s in front of my home-crowd. The win eluded us last year but hopefully we can have a run like we did in 2011 and come home with the clean-sweep, we have local support from the Helm Bar, the cars fast, no doubt about that, so we’ll see how we go,” said Harris.
Merrimac High School Graduate Jesse Dixon is currently sitting fourth in the ARMOR ALL Drivers Championship and is close to having his first V8 Ute Podium.
“That’s our focus, our goal all year is to finish races, stay consistent and it’s working well for us. So fingers crossed we can reach the top three, it would be great to start by taking a podium in front of my home crowd, I grew up on the Gold Coast and it’s also the 10th anniversary of my fathers’ passing so it would make it 100 times sweeter,” said Dixon.
Big Gun Racing Team Owner, Peter Burnitt, will take part in his sixth Gold Coast event along with Teammates and brothers Ben and Cam Wilson. Wilson filled in for Burnitt at the event in 2012 and won Race 2 on his debut. Last year wasn’t the same outcome for the Go Karting Gold Coast owner, he was caught up in an accident at the back chicane in Race 3, with his car written off from the incident. Wilson is keen to have a good result this year and has secured backing from local radio station Rebel FM.
“Last year didn’t go the way we wanted at all and was the start of a long line of bad luck. We have since rebuilt the car twice and we had a good run at Bathurst, so I’m feeling confident coming into the round, we tested today and we’ve fixed the brake issues that had been plaguing us,” said Wilson.
Spud Wood will join the Big Gun Racing team for this round stepping into a Ford for the first time, his regular #41 Holden had extensive damage at the Bathurst event and won’t be reparable for next weekend’s Castrol Edge Gold Coast 600. Gerard McLeod also suffered major damage at the last round but was able to repair his Macmahon Mining Holden in time.
More drivers expected to be front runners include; David Sieders who has won five races and all Pole Awards (except for 2011 when Harris took pole.) Nathan ‘Nitrous’ Pretty, currently running third in the Series and won the Gold Coast round last year. West Aussie Rhys McNally has just come off his first V8 Ute Podium win at Bathurst, he also stood on podium last year at the Gold Coast 600. George Miedecke is also back in the front running action, after claiming his first 2014 podium at Bathurst last week, since he raced full time in 2009 at the Sydney 500. Miedecke stood on the Gold Coast podium in 2007, alongside former champions Jack Elsegood and Grant Johnson.
See below full schedule for the weekend:Friday, 24th October Practice 10:20amFriday, 24th October Practice 2:55pmSaturday, 25th October Qualifying 8:40amSaturday, 25th October Race 1 12:10pmSunday, 26th October Race 2 09:00amSunday, 26th October Race 3 12:00pm
Race 1 and Race 3 will be televised on Network Seven, be sure to check your local guides.
