BATHURST 1000
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IF anyone had asked V8 Utes series driver Ryal Harris what is his favourite month on the calendar was yesterday morning he would not have hesitated at all before offering an answer – it would be October.
Last year in October he took out the final race of the V8 Utes Series’ Bathurst round to earn himself the top step on the podium for the event and yesterday he did the same.
This time securing the round win came with an even bigger bonus as well – Harris now leads the overall championship by 13 points over Holden’s Nathan Pretty.
“Nathan finished well back which is good for me, so I am looking forward to Gold Coast now. I won every race there last year, it’s my home town, so very confident,” Harris said.
“October is a good month, it’s always a good month for me, but I am thinking towards Homebush at the end of the year, that is where I want to be on top of the points. It’s good being in front now, but being in front at the end of the last round is what counts.”
Hoping for his second Bathurst round win in as many years, Harris went from pole position in Sunday’s finale in his Ford FG.
He already had a first and fourth placing to his credit from Saturday’s two races, but it was Holden’s Cameron McConville who was the first up the mountain as he got away well from position two.
Gary MacDonald made more of a mess of the start as he dropped from position three to fifth by the time the first lap was completed.
Then, as McConville locked his wheels and ran wide on turn two of the second lap, it allowed Harris to get close enough to pull off a passing move and claim the lead.
Gerard McLeod struck trouble on the same part of the track as he spun out, but he was able to get his ute back pointed in the racing direction and continued on.
MacDonald clocked a new V8 Utes Bathurst lap record on his second circuit around Mount Panorama – a two minutes, 33.6751 seconds effort – but he still sat in fifth place after the third lap.
That was where he stayed.
His record was short lived too – Andrew Fisher lowering the mark to 2:33.4007 as he tried to improve from sixth position.
Ahead of them Sieders had got around McConville into second to make it Ford in positions one and two, the Sieders Racing Team driver improving the record further on his fourth lap (2:32.9353) as he tried to reel in Harris.
Sieders had a look outside Harris in the run down The Chase before tucking back in, the gap between the pair mere metres as the man in position two saw the record lowered yet again (2:32.8379).
With the race cut a lap short it left Sieders 6.213 kilometres to try and take the lead, but Harris was able to hold him off to claim his second chequered flag of the weekend.
Third belonged to McConville, which also had him third overall for the round behind Harris and Sieders.
“He [Sieders] had a lot of speed, I don’t know where he got it from, a new lap record to him, congratulations, but I just did what I needed to do,” Harris said.
“I got the break at the start and then the thing went off terribly, I think we started the tyre pressure too high, we just under predicted how much grip the track had. The track was really fast obviously [with] a 32.8 done by Dave.
“Even if Dave got past me I still won the round even though I wanted to win the race. As soon as I got clarification it was the last lap – then you are allowed to block – I went defensive on the last lap and that was it.”