David Sieders, who celebrated his 26th birthday last week, will be hoping that the combination of a new engine and social media resources will see him return to the front of the field when the Yokohama V8 Utes hit the streets of Townsville next weekend, 9-11th July.

The Nulon Oils Ford Falcon XR8 driver will be heading to Townsville tomorrow to help install his new motor, which is expected to lift his recent performances and has already boosted his confidence going into the Far North Queensland round.

“Darwin was always going to be a Holden dominated round of the Series,” said Sieders, “and being down on horsepower made it really hard to match it down the straight with the frontrunners”.

“We’ll be bolting in the new engine on Tuesday and giving it a good run over the dyno before the round, and that should help me put the car back to where it was at Adelaide - back at the front.”

Although the Sieders Racing Crew managed the entries of Andrew “Fishtail” Fisher and Ben “Dunny” Dunn in the same round last year, this will be the first time the Western Sydneysider has been to the region, let alone driven around the track.

“I wasn’t able to make it to Townsville last year, so this will be another good test for me,” said Sieders, “I’ve actually started looking for in-car and broadcast footage on YouTube to get some insight to the circuit before I get up there and can go around the track myself”.

With older brother Colin Sieders returning to the Fujitsu V8 Supercar Development Series this week in the ‘City of Townsville’ Falcon, both drivers will no doubt be getting the low-down on the track from Chris Blomfield-Brown, the team’s engineer, after he took out 9th in the Annual Charity Cycle.

“Chris is our own Lance Armstrong…he’s a cycling freak,” said David Sieders, “I remember a three-lap race at Wakefield where he actually lapped me, so any insight on the Townsville circuit that he may have gained will be most helpful”.

After being knocked down to fifth in the championship at Darwin, in true V8 Ute fashion, David Sieders remains focussed on returning to his opening round form and maintaining his lead in the Rookie of the Year Standings.

“I’ve been agonisingly close to the Rookie of the Year in a couple of categories, and I would like to think that at this point in my career I’ll finally be able to tick that box this year,” said Sieders.

“My number one goal at the moment is to get back to the front of the field in each session,” said Sieders, “at the end of the day, the best chance I have to winning the Rookie of the Year, or to take out the Competition, is to win as many races as possible.”

The Yokohama V8 Ute Series will hit the streets of Townsville for the halfway point of the season with Practice on Friday 9th July, Qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday, and two races on Sunday.

“There’s a fair amount of work to get back into the Series’ Lead, but this is V8 Ute racing, and just as I had a bad round at Darwin, anything can happen to anyone in this category.”