MEDIA RELEASE: Dave “Sideways” Sieders showed great racing speed and ability in his Mango Credit Commodore on his way to securing a Top Five points finish for round three of the East Coast Bullbars Australian V8 Ute Racing Series at Hidden Valley Raceway
In a tough weekend, the 30 year old from Western Sydney managed to bounced back from some disappointing results on the Saturday to put in two strong performances by racing through the front markers on Sunday to finish the weekend on a three-way points tie for fifth place.
“It’s definitely a weekend of mixed emotions,” said Sieders.
“We had some good pace on Friday, but I feel like a bit of an idiot for some of the stuff on Saturday, then we bounced back on Sunday with some really good pace and showed what we had, probably a little too late.”
“Darwin is always a tough place to race at, obviously the heat in the car and track temperature plays a big role, but the new surface was awesome to race on and made for some good racing.”
Sieders ended Friday’s combined practice session time sheets in third, and managed to make it through to the second part of Qualifying (the Top 10 Qualifying sprint) on Sunday morning, but was only able to secure a seventh placing after a slight mistake on track on his flyer and a miscue on timing at the end of the session.
“The car wasn’t as good in ‘qualy’ as it had been in practice; it was a little loose and kept locking the rears,” said Sieders.
“I made an error on my quickest lap, and at the end of that second session, I wasn’t expecting to beat the chequered flag for another run, so by the time I realised I’d already compromised that lap, which would have been a good shot at moving up with a clear run”.
In Saturday afternoon’s race, Sieders was quick off the start, moving up a few places before the first turn, however, he was hung out wide with the front four coming together dropping him to 12th, and although he was able to make it back to 6th place, an uncharacteristic off had him finish in ninth.
“I seem to have locked in a really good start, and was past [Kris] Walton before the braking marker, but with the guys at the front getting into each other, sending George [Miedecke] off the track in front of me, it opened the inside run for a few guys to get through,” said Sieders.
“I managed to pass my way back to sixth, and I probably could have got one or two more and get to fourth, but I missed a braking marker at turn one later in the race and had to settle for ninth.”
Missing the inversion by one place, Sieders’ renewed focus worked to find a way through the race one winners, including winning a front straight drag race with Championship leader, Ryal Harris, moving from his ninth placed start to finish in fourth.
“There’s no surprise on missing the inversion and starting behind the guys at the front of race one, that’s just the kind of luck I seem to have,” said Sieders.
“We showed some great speed in making up five spots, that all took some tough racing to get, and it was an encouraging way to bounce back after Saturday’s disappointment”.
For the final race, the Mango Credit Commodore came on late in the race, however, with the race cut short due to time restrictions, Sieders was unable to overcome the earlier biff and barge and finished in sixth position with the fastest lap of the session set on lap nine of 10.
“We got off to a strong start again and I was hoping to pull away with Jeremy [Gray] and Gerard [McLeod], but the car just took too long to come on, and I wasn’t able to hold out the [Matt Stone Racing] Fords of Chris [Pither] and George [Miedecke], who had great pace all weekend,” said Sieders.
“We managed to finish two-tenths faster than the rest of the field at the end of the race, which is encouraging, but it’s just too late to try to win from there if you’re not already pushing for the lead”.
Sieders now sits sixth in the V8 Ute Championship, however, he has a 93 point gap to Ryal Harris in the leader’s spot, which he’ll be focussed on as they go into the fourth round of the series at Townsville in three weeks time, 10-12th July 2015.
“We keep moving up in the Series, but Ryal keeps moving away from us, so we need to take that pole position from Townsville last year and make it a round winning result this year, and make a significant impact on that points gap.”
