Seiders claims round seven

David Seiders took out round seven in the V8 Utes at the Castrol Gold Coast 600 and has secured the series championship lead.

Seiders is now 89 points ahead of Nathan Pretty in the lead to the deciding round, the Coates Hire Sydney 500, next month.

Seiders managed to stand on top of the podium at the Gold Coast, keeping his Mango Credit Short Term Loans #3 Holden Commodore out of the mayhem occuring on-track.

Special guests on the day, The Mad Hueys presented the V8 Utes round seven front-runners their trophies on the day.

Sunday’s race three on the streets of Surfers Paradise was red flagged on lap four of the race after Peter Burnitt made contact with Cam Wilson into turn 13 causing a multi ute pile-up.

Danny Buzadzic, Bruce Oaklands, Nandi Kiss, Craig Woods and Maxim Erickson were all caught up in the incident which blocked the track for oncoming traffic at turn 13.

Burnitt was excluded from the Castrol Gold Coast 600 meeting and fined after he was deemed to have deemed to have breached CAMS Race Meeting Standing Regulations article 7.2 and CAMS National Competition Rule (NCR) 183.

The V8 Utes driver was fined $10,000 for the breech of rule which refers to overtaking, car control and track limits and reckless driving. Of the total, $7,500 is suspended until December 31 next year.

The race was suspended and no points were awarded towards the V8 Utes Championship because it did not meet the minimum distance.

Carnage was caused in Saturday’s race two after Craig Dontas misjudged the first beach chicane. Dontas smashed his #45 Holden Commodore into the concrete wall before it ricocheted in front of Ryan Hansford.

Hansford’s #6 Multispares Racing Ford Falcon was totaled after the shunt, leaving debris covering the track.

Both drivers walked away from the incident and gave each other a friendly pat on the back.

Kim Jane secured P1 in Saturday’s 12 lap race, followed by Nathan Pretty and Mason Barbera.

V8 Utes category manager Tony Bowker said he was pleased with the number of entries for the V8 Utes Series round seven at the Castrol Gold Coast 600.

“The numbers were up at the Gold Coast with 19 entries in the category,” Bowker said.

“It was surprising considering the dangers of the concrete jungle, but a great outcome for the category.”

The V8 Utes will be back on-track at the Coates Hire Sydney 500, December 2-4.