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 After strong local support in 2010, Colin Sieders has hit the road to North Queensland with a week of appearances booked for his City of Townsville Racing Falcon ahead of Round Three of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series next weekend, 8-10th July.
Taking being a driver to another level, Colin left last night on his 2200km drive north in the team’s transporter and will arrive in Townsville on tomorrow (29thJuly) for some last minute sign writing, before he takes his supercar around the town for six days worth of public appearances.
“The support we got from the local Townsville community last year was fantastic,” said Colin Sieders, “we had 13 businesses get behind the concept, and quite a few more who wanted to be involved in the future, and we’re well on our way to bettering that this year”.
“The week of promotional appearances before the round last year was really enjoyable and, with a few more places booked in this year, like Willows Shopping Centre and Bunnings, as well as heading back to the Red Cross Blood Donor Centre, Townsville RSL and Tec-NQ, I’m looking forward to getting out there with the public again.”
As part of his City of Townsville promotions, Colin will also be raising support and money for Food Relief North Queensland (which redistributes food and other donated consumables to the needy), offering the public the chance to sign a message on the supercar for a gold coin donation to the cause.
“There’s a lot of people out there who aren’t doing so well, so when we were asked to help support Food Relief NQ, we were only too willing to do our little bit to try to help the problem with raising both awareness and funds.”
Despite showing solid racing form in 2010, Colin was punted out of the last race of the weekend, which saw him tumble from well within the Top 15 for the weekend, and will be looking for a much stronger result this year.
“We were unfortunate to finish in 22nd position last year, having been taken out by other people’s mistakes last year, so we’ll definitely be looking for a solid result this year and try to avoid other people’s dramas to look at finishing in or around the Top 10.”
Preparation for this round was turned on its head last week, with a scheduled test at Eastern Creek cancelled as the Sieders Racing crew could not fly back into Sydney due to the volcanic ash cloud, leaving only brothers David and Colin around to run the day.
”With only Dave (Sieders) and I in town, and with all the preparations to finalise and having to help the family business, it just wasn’t going to be feasible to run the day successfully,” said Sieders, “although we definitely gave it some serious consideration.”
The cancellation not only prevented Colin from getting valuable track time ahead of the Townsville round of the Championship, but with his Falcon fitted with a sequential gearbox since his last round at Adelaide, it has robbed him of critical familiarisation.
“We were only able to do 20 laps a few weeks ago when we first put [the gearbox] in, but we weren’t able to do a proper full day, so it’ll mean trying to get into the rhythm of it quickly during Practice, so that we’re in the right position from Qualifying.”
With the Enduro Rounds of the V8 Supercar Championships approach, Townsville will also host a number of ‘Main Game’ Co-Drivers for the round, as they did in 2010, but their inclusion does not concern Colin.
“We had the co-drivers join this round last year, and the expectations placed on them to perform almost played in our favour,” said Sieders, “at turn two of the first race, most of the front-runners came together, and if not for us getting turned around by the cars behind us trying to avoid the pile-up, we could have started the weekend within the top half of the field”.
Round Three of the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series will hit the Townsville Street Circuit for the first Practice Sessions on Friday 8th July, with Qualifying on Saturday at 9:45am before Race One at 1:50pm, and two races on Sunday at 10:00am and 1:10pm (local time).
“It’s going to be a tough weekend with a field of 28 entries, but I’m more than confident that we’ll do our supporters and the community of the City of Townsville proud when we hit the track next week.”
| Thursday 30th June |
Willows Shopping Centre
Thuringowa Drv
Kirwan QLD 4817 |
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| Friday 1st July |
Townsville RSL
139 Charters Towers Road
Hermit Park QLD 4812 |
| Saturday 2nd July |
Willows Shopping Centre
Thuringowa Drv
Kirwan QLD 4817 |
Saturday 2nd July (evening)
T.B.C. |
Reading Cinemas
Hervey Range Rd
Thuringowa QLD 4817 |
| Sunday 3rd July |
Bunnings
Cnr Dalrymple Rd &
Duckworth St,
Garbutt QLD 4814 |
| Monday 4th July (am) |
Red Cross Donor Centre
100 Angus Smith Drive
Douglas QLD 4814 |
| Monday 4th July (pm) |
Tec-NQ
Discovery Drive,
Douglas QLD 4814 |
| Tuesday 5th July (am) |
T.B.C. |
| Tuesday 5th July (evening) |
Reading Cinemas
Hervey Range Rd
Thuringowa QLD 4817 |
| Wednesday 6th July |
Townsville RSL
139 Charters Towers Road
Hermit Park QLD 4812 |
| Thursday 7th July |
TO TRACK |
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