Dave "Sideways" Sieders has broken through for his first round and race wins in his Mango Credit Commodore at Townsville for round four of the East Coast Bullbars Australian V8 Ute Racing Series on the Reid Park circuit this weekend, 10-12th July 2015.
Having never even stepped onto the podium at the North Queensland circuit in four previous attempts, the 31 year old was ecstatic to finally record his first round and two race wins in over 12 months, also being his first wins since his switch of manufacturers in the off season.
"It looks like the Holden is just what I needed to get that monkey off my back here in Townsville," said Sieders, "we finally have our first race win in a Holden; first race win at Townsville; first reverse grid race win; and our first round win in Townsville too, so we've ticked a lot of boxes this weekend".
"This Mango Credit Commodore is such a quick car and this weekend has been a fitting result for all of the hard work put in by the Sieders Racing crew, and it's great to finally show just what it is capable of."
Adding to the celebrations of his 10th V8 Ute Series round win, Sieders' points haul has now moved him to third place in the Championship, only 30 points behind Series Leader Ryal Harris.
"There's still half a season to go, but it definitely feels great to be back near the top of the Championship, with less than half a race worth of points to the lead, and picking up 65 points over Ryal this weekend."
Sieders started the weekend with the top spot in Friday's opening practice, but could only manage third place in the next three sessions, including qualifying and the opening race on Saturday afternoon, as teammate Rhys McNally topped each of the other sessions.
"It was great to roll out of the truck with really good pace, but in the Top 10 session of qualifying I got baulked by a car on track who wasn't actually part of that session and had to settle for third place with a last ditch effort," said Sieders, "there was a good battle in race one, but knowing I'd start in front of [Gerard] McLeod and Rhys [McNally] for the second race, I just wanted to apply pressure to capitalise on any mistakes, whilst making none of my own".
Seemingly inspired by the social media campaign of the host city, Sunday was Sieders time to shine - racing to the front from an inverted fourth place start position in the morning race, and taking a lights to flag race win in the afternoon to record his 21st and 22nd V8 Ute Racing career race wins.
"I had three great starts across all three races, and was confident that our pace would get us past [Kris] Walton [on pole] in race two," said Sieders, "there was a bit of a tussle on the first lap in race three, but other than that, I was able to get a good gap and back up from race two with a second win for the day."
The V8 Ute Series will now go into another significant break before heading to the Melbourne track of Sandown Raceway for round five of the season on 11-13th September 2015.
"Sandown's been a lot like Townsville for us, with only one pole and no wins down there, so hopefully the turnaround we got in the Holden at Townsville will give us the same turnaround and more wins at Sandown." s
