– Media Release
Sunday, 27th October, 2013 – One of the most spectacular incidents in the V8 Utes 12 year history marred the final race of Round 7 of at the ARMOR ALL Gold Coast 600. In a post – race stewards hearing, series leader coming into the round, David Sieders, was stripped of 35 series points, whilst Nathan “Nitrous” Pretty managed to walk away with the Round win. Reigning champ, Gold Coast based Ryal Harris, has moved back into the Championship lead after Race 3, which was deemed a non-race on the Streets of the Gold Coast on Sunday, 27th October 2013.
The incident happened at the back chicane only seconds into the start of the race. Sieders clipped the wall at turn 6 after contact with Wayne Wakefield, triggering a high speed game of motorised paint ball which unfortunately wrote off Adam Marjoram’s Auto One Holden, Cam Wilson’s Ford and the Sieder’s Ford. The race was immediately red flagged while officials checked all drivers were OK. All were cleared from the medical centre following post-race checks.
Sieders was disappointed with the result and hopeful for a better run in Sydney next month.
“Can we run back yesterday after Race1? It’s been a disaster ever since Jesse (Dixon) took me out, it just kept getting worse. As we seen in race 1 I had guns a blazing, I had a couple of issues in Race 2 we were going to sort it all out, which wasn’t a problem but we had even more issues with other competitors so bring on Homebush,” said Sieders.
Pretty, driving the Milwaukee Racing Holden is excited to put more points into his championship hopes.
“I know the job at hand and that’s to keep grabbing points. It was very disappointing the live race ended the way it did, I’m just glad that everyone is OK. We just have to push on to Sydney, we should have a really strong car in Sydney so I’m really looking forward to getting there in a month,” said Pretty.
Tapout Energy Racing’s Harris couldn’t have thought of a better place to regain the title in front of his home crowd and also took home third for the Round.
“It was so close coming into the weekend, anything could have happened and it has. Once we figured out we had pace, we made the most of it. I’m disappointed we didn’t get to maximize our lead in the last race, especially seeing it was caused by David (Sieders), I’m glad that everyone is OK through,” said Harris.
Rhys McNally did a fantastic job to walk away with his third podium for the year, claiming second overall for the round and has moved into second position in the ENZED Drivers Championship.
Red Ass Mexican Food/ BP Racing’s Ben Dunn won the SS Inductions Hard Charger Award and $500 cash for passing 18 Utes in Race 2.
Andrew Fisher claimed sixth overall for the weekend and received the Masters Award. Craig Dontas and his Thirsty Camel Racing’s Holden claimed the ARMOR ALL Best Presented Award and his Team Murphy Racing took out the Team Award.
Adam Marjoram claimed the Rookie Award for the weekend and is 140 points shy of leader Elliot Barbour coming into the final round.
See below top three Yokohama V8 Ute Rookie Standings.
1 Elliot Barbour 594
2 Adam Marjoram Auto One Racing 446
3 Jesse Dixon88Hayman Reese Racing 436
See below top 5 ENZED Drivers Championship Points
Ryal Harris 782
Rhys McNally 743
David Sieders 741
Nathan Pretty 741
Kim Jane 681
Kris Walton 681
The V8 Utes will be back on track for the final Round of the Series at the Sydney Telstra 500 6 – 8 December at Sydney Olympic Park but to catch all of the action from the Gold Coast again tune in to Network Seven next Saturday, 2nd November at 1:30pm.
Be the first to comment