NEW SUPERUTES ERA A SUCCESS

A new V8-era for the SuperUtes began at The Bend Motorsport Park as previous series winner Ryal Harris took two victories out of three and emerged from the maiden weekend delighted with the final outcome.

“This is what they should have done from the start,” he declared.

“They are so much better, louder, more power, fun to drive, I think they’re safer to drive because with the diesel you had to over drive them to keep the momentum up, they were like a big hire car the old ones.”

The new package was developed by the Sieders Racing Team in association with Haltech and other suppliers during the past year. Harris not only lauded the development work completed, but also credited his Peters Motorsport crew, who had built up his Mazda BT-50 three weeks prior.

In preparation for the opening round, troubles were encountered in what was an eight-lap shakedown at Queensland Raceway.

Reflecting on the maiden weekend, Harris moved to scupper the negative talk surrounding the category.

“You can’t win,” Harris said.

“People complained about the diesels being too slow and now there are complaints of them not being relevant to the market, but relevance to me means nothing.

“It’s just about creating good racing, it’s all about entertainment and market relevance or not, I think it’s a bit better package now.”

Sharing his thoughts on what may change in the future, Harris suggested bigger guards and updating the appearance of the current crop of SuperUtes to showroom models.

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