Sidecar action will erupt tomorrow night, as the sixteen best sidecar teams in Australia descend on Mildura’s Olympic Park Speedway for Round Seven of the Sidecar Grand Slam.
The current World and five-time Australian champion pair of Darrin Treloar and Sam Gilbert will lead the talented field, which will also include two-time World Champions Mick Headland and Paul Waters.
Headland and Treloar have taken the only three World Championships to ever be decided, with Headland winning in England back in 2009, before backing up the following year in France, while Treloar winning his title back in November at Murray Bridge.
Fellow five-time Australian champions Glenn O’Brien and Aaron Maynard will also be using their knowledge and liking of the Olympic Park circuit to be at the top of the stack. O’Brien still holds the four lap track record at Mildura – a record he has held since his halcyon days during 1996.
Queenslanders, Brodie Cohen and Cal Campbell have been a successful pairing in the core group of the Grand Slam team and have, along with Trent and Jesse Headland, been ever present in recent finals. Both these young teams are the future of Australian Sidecar racing and all eyes will be on them for good signs ahead.
Mildura pair, Byren Gates and Mick O’Loughlin, have been core members of the travelling Grand Slam, and have had some good meetings along the way. The contracted Gates/O’Loughlin combination started the rounds in great form, being the finalists in the early meetings in Queensland. They will want to assert some authority over the Mildura meeting, showing all the, perhaps higher regarded teams that there is a faster local way around Olympic Park..
The Mildura round promises to be the toughest of the series so far, with the inclusion of not only the fast Kiwi team of Andrew Buchanan and Philippa Burns, but also all of Mildura’s regulars. The New Zealand couple have ridden well at Olympic Park on two previous occasions and have jumped at the chance to “cross the ditch” to run again amongst their new found friends.
All of the Mildura teams will be geared up to take some big scalps, with in-form pairs Mayes/Summerhayes, Bradshaw/Behsmann, Holmes/Hancock and Monson (now with temporary passenger Matt Morgan), all keen on a good showing in front of the home crowd. Any of these local combinations could cause problems as far as the top teams are concerned.
Travelling teams will also be looking to impress, with Shepparton duo, Mal German and Steven Stagg, Broken Hill’s, Rick Stevens and Dean Hobbs, and Adelaide’s, Shane Evans and Alan Gale to also be in the mix for good points.
Also included in the field will be the composite teams of Adelaide’s, Chris Pascoe and Mildura Motorcycle Club vice-president, Simon Cohrs, who will be hoping to reproduce their fine form of last year, where they did well in the Australian Championships and the World Titles.
Gates will also be looking to regain his form from the World Titles, which he rode with his recently injured brother, Deven, who is Warren Monson’s regular passenger. Deven and Warren had a big crash in Round Six of the Grand Slam, with Gates sustaining a broken leg.
The other composite team of former Australian champion passenger Justin Plaisted and Mildura local Mark Lucas will also be one to watch, with Plaisted stepping into the rider’s seat. Lucas is a brilliant passenger and teamed with a former expert passenger, now changed to manning the throttle, Lucas will assist Plaisted greatly in reading the track conditions well.
There are some very tough riders in the field, with no ‘beg-pardons’ expected. Plaisted, German, Monson and Stephens are all in a group where some contact seems to be accepted.
The sheer power, speed and technique of either team of Headlands, O’Brien, Treloar and Buchanan, along with the local experience of the Mildura riders, will give the meeting two areas of expertise for Sunraysia patrons to focus on. A full 20 heat program, plus a semi-final and a final will be used to determine the top dog at the Mildura venue.
Headland/Waters, Treloar/Gilbert and O’Brien/Maynard have played out much of the finals activity to date, with the local knowledge of all Mildura teams always to come to the fore.
Olympic Park gates will open from 5pm, with senior practice to take place at 5.45pm. A small junior meeting will follow, before a rider introduction at 7.20pm.
The Grand Slam will commence at 7.30pm, and will include some classic sidecars as support. Olympic Park has a full catering service available, with patrons reminded that there is no BYO by law.

A quality field has been put together for the 2011 Victorian Solo Speedway Championship at Mildura’s Olympic Park Speedway on Saturday night.

Heading the stack is veteran Merbein rider, Mark Lemon, who has twice been the Victorian Solo Champion. Lemon rode last week in the Leigh Adams benefit meeting in Adelaide and was joint top points scorer, when riding in his first meeting for a couple of months. Lemon only arrived in Australia last week to ride the Adams meeting, so was still jet lagged for the Gillman meet, where he finished contesting the “A” final.

In other top news for the Australian International, he has been appointed by MA, as the Australian Speedway Team Manager for the forthcoming season, which is a wonderful position for the well travelled star. Lemon will bring a tenacity to the Australian team, which has been missing for a while. He will be a good Team Manager, and hopefully can refocus the Aussies to the form which they had as a team, a decade ago.

The younger riders will not want to see Lemon get it all his own way and the likes of Cory Gathercole, Justin Sedgmen, Tom Hedley and Robert Ksiezak, will be doing their best to take the main prize and a podium position.

Gathercole, the 2007, WA and Victorian Champion, has returned to Mildura after a couple of consistent seasons in England. He is now a regular top scorer for his Premier league team, Somerset, scoring 7.75 points average and collects good points for his Elite League Club, Swindon. Cory would be expected to be a huge threat for top place on the podium given his recent form and skills, especially after the “double up” job he does for both the “Rebels” and the “Robins” in the Elite and Premier Leagues.

The younger Sedgmen brother, Justin, came home from England quite a few weeks ago, stale from the grind of continual racing. He has cleared his head by working at his regular job in Mildura and just last week collected his machinery, which has been freighted from England for his assault on both the Victorian and Australian Championships as they come along. He rode very well in Adelaide last weekend and will be a force to be reckoned with. A specialist at Olympic Park, Justin will join Gathercole as a favourite for a podium place.

Former International Tom Hedley and SA rider, Rob Ksiezak, will be keen to put themselves in contention for a podium spot, with some good consistent riding while Mark Jones, Ryan Sedgmen, Dakota North and Jake Anderson, will be amongst the other younger riders willing to take points from any riders in the field. Ksiezak has recovered from a broken leg and will be looking to gain form ready for another assault on the British League, while Jones, is a skillful rider who, like North, could be a surprise packet in the field. A much more relaxed Ryan Sedgmen, will battle with most riders as will, Jake Anderson, who has stayed in Australia this past season, working to better fund his racing.

Another veteran, Jason Stewart, can never been discounted, as he is a most talented rider, who always makes the most of his opportunities. Stewart is a fast racer, who always gives his best. He will often take the wide line in the corners, riding, using much of his Long Track experience, to his advantage. Stewart has a “never give in” attitude, but his different lines to other riders often see him “slip by” when the riders are not expecting to be passed.

Brock Gates and Chris Ferguson have good experience at Mildura and could easily figure in taking significant points from any riders who happen to struggle on the night, while Michael King will be an unknown quantity at the tight Olympic Park circuit. Adam Briggs will use his small previous experience at Mildura to his best advantage.

The youngsters in the field are Brenton Barnfield, who took a baptism of fire last season when he came into the Australian Title field at Kurri Kurri and performed creditably, until a spill saw him break a wrist and put him out of action. Barnfield is an accomplished rider, who has learned that patience is a great virtue on the race track.

Along with Barnfield, is the newest graduate to the senior scene, Brayden Paver. The elder boy in the Paver family has been riding his 350 machine for some time while practicing on the senior bike at meetings through the winter. Brayden will look after himself, knowing that he is in the field for the enjoyment and the experience in top company.

All twenty Title heats will be exciting, as riders push for supremacy. It will be great to see some veteran riders, along with absolute new comers to contest the 2011 Title, which will be decided after the top four point scorers have completed the all important Championship Final at the end of the night.

Support events for the Title meeting will be a mix of Sidecars, with Mildura teams of Jason Bradshaw / Steve Behsmann, Clint Mayes / Andrew Summerhayes and Simon and Mark Cohrs being the locals who are pitted against the Darren Howes / Matt Ward and the Daniel Stephens teams from Broken Hill. Racing in the three wheeled class will be fast and furious as always. Nomination support from these Sidecar teams is highly valued by the Club.

A Junior meeting, starting at 6:30pm, will be the curtain raiser for the main event, which will get under way with a rider presentation at 7:20pm and Senior racing set to follow at 7:30pm sharp.

Olympic Park gates open at 5:00pm and Patrons are reminded that Olympic Park provides a full catering service and that there must be No BYO by law.

Some of the world’s best Speedway Sidecars teams are set to challenge Mildura on Wednesday night, 16th November, when four teams of potent sidecar exponents will fight out for the rights to be the best Sidecar team in the World.

Mildura’s impact on world sidecar racing was seen last Saturday night when the FIM Track Racing Sidecar 1000cc World Championship was conducted. This was only the third time that the World Title has been held and the first time that the event has been staged in Australia.

Mildura passenger, and Mildura Club, Vice – President, Simon Cohrs, continued his meteoric form with Adelaide rider, Chris Pascoe, when they combined to be top points score on the night, after twenty heats of racing. In a twist of fate, had the rule not been amended by the world Jury, just a day before the meeting, Pascoe and Cohrs would have been World Champions, they, however, lost their opportunity to shine when a fuel hiccup at the start of the semi-final cost them just a couple of metres and they were never able to round up the smooth riding of Byren Gates and his brother Deven, who took second place in the semi and a fourth place in the final that followed.

The Gates boys had started the meeting at second reserve position. They did not ride until heat nine, where they scored two points and they accumulated two points in each of the final three rounds. They also appeared for a second time in round five, this time replacing the first reserve and according to the rules, were able to accumulate those points as well, which moved them into a position for a semi-final berth. A typical sporting gesture from first reserve, Ronny Parker, was responsible for Gates getting a ride in Parker’s own reserve position. Parker had only scored 2 points from his three rides.

Newly crowned World Track Racing Sidecar Champion, Darrin Treloar, with passenger, Jesse Headland, who now has back to back World Titles, will be here and ride in Team Australia. They will be joined by the vanquished champions, Mick Headland / Paul Waters, along with former Australian Champion, Mark Mitchell / Tom Golding and the newest sensations, Chris Pascoe and Simon Cohrs. What a team this will be, as all riders have amazing credentials as riders in their own rights. The steely look in Treloar’s eyes all weekend gave notice of

Pitted against Team Australia will be team New Zealand, who did not let us forget about the Rugby World Cup, so this is a chance to even up on behalf of all Australians.

Effervescent pair of “Spud” Buchanan and life partner, Phillipa Burns, will be joined by Dave Gannon / Ray George and Les Plummer / Cam Bell as part of Team NZ. Joining them, after an offer last week, will be local riders, Dale Milner / Brock Gates to make up the Kiwi team of four.

Buchanan / Burns were unlucky to miss out on the semi finals at the Worlds, but a laconic Phillipa said, “That one more point would have seen them in the finals – so we have nobody to blame but ourselves”

Team Mildura takes a big boost now with the amazing effort by the Gates brothers, who will have Jason Bradshaw / Steve Behsmann and the consistent Clint Mayes / Andrew Summerhayes and evergreen, Chris Holmes / Neale Hancock waving the Mildura flag high.

The Gates boys success, with a fourth World final placing moves their ranking higher in the Australian scene, although they did have some podium success at the recent round of the Sidecar Grand Slam.

Team Mildura will focus on gathering points regularly, just as the “Gaters” did last Saturday. An even spread of points will be required for the team to do well, so all four combinations will have to gather and not concede any easy points to other teams.

Team Great Britain has been hit top leg with some machinery issues, but evergreen Pommy, Mick Cave / Trent Headland will be joined by the super experienced Roy Spreadbury / Gareth Little, who have had many years on both grass track and speedway in the UK. The main men will be joined by Damian Niesche / Jack Spear and Bart Stephens / Dean Hobbs, who together will bring the Englishmen up to standard. Niesche and Stephens are both real goers and while Cave has cut plenty of laps at Olympic Park the Aussie boys in their team will help them, especially Spreadbury out understanding the foibles of Mildura’s wonderful Olympic Park.

Patrons at Olympic Park on Wednesday night will see a different way of running speedway with a total focus on “teams” racing. In each heat, there will be one machine from each team, so a positive score will be vital to the wellbeing of the team. Speedway fans in England would be more used to the teams concept, so for our fans, this will be something which will bring extra excitement to each race. The teams will compete over sixteen nominated heats, which will then be followed by another four heats which will each be filled by those riders getting fourth points in each team filling heat seventeen and the third highest points all going into heat eighteen, with the second top points scorers going into heat nineteen while the top points scorers from each team will contest the final Challenge heat.

As with World Speedway Team Cup events, a “Joker” can be used once by any team if that team is eight or more points in arrears of any other team. The joker is used in all World Team Cup fixtures and provides another level of excitement for fans outside of the regular scores. The joker can only be used by the rider in the next nominated ride in any of the first sixteen heats.

Mildura speedway fans will be able to see a night of wonderful excitement, where riders will give nor ask for no “beg pardons,” as the racing will be fast and furious. The confines of Olympic Park will see closer racing than at Murray Bridge, but riders will appreciate the relative flat contours of Mildura instead of the massive banking of the SA venue. Watch out for Team Mildura to get their moment in the sun, as Team Australia should start as meeting favourites.

Fans can never quite predict the influence of the joker in speedway competition and Wednesday night will be no exception.

Gates will open at Olympic Park at 5:00pm sharp, with Practice set to start at 5:45. A junior program will be held from 6:30 and the senior Rider Parade will begin at 7:20. Racing will start at 7:30 sharp and Club Officials will work hard to ensure an early finish to proceedings so as folk can be ready for work early the following morning.

Olympic Park has full catering facilities and patrons are reminded that there must be NO BYO by law.

A fine field of Solo stars will be on the card at Mildura’s Olympic Park this Saturday night when the Mildura Speedway season opens in earnest.

A great field of Sidecars too, will explode onto the track; to start off hostilities in the right vein in a meeting which will have great interest for Sunraysia speedway fans. Both solos and sidecars will be very competitive and the format to be used on the night will showcase that competitiveness.

A “new look” race track, with resplendent, freshly painted new fence panels, will greet all competitors, in what will be a fascinating start to the Mildura season. Improvements are always on the Olympic Park agenda, with the fence being part of the constant refurbishment. Further plans are afoot to continually upgrade the facilities, as the Club progresses a master plan for change.

The turn out on Saturday will include twelve top sidecars, which include the top line up from Mildura with Byren Gates, Jason Bradshaw and Wazza Monson heading the bill. The top three will be combined with Chris Holmes, Clint Mayes, Dale Milner and Simon Cohrs, along for good measure. Visitors will include Broken Hill Star, Ricky Stephens and from Albury, Lindsay McGregor, as well as Adelaide’s Tim Bichard and Aaron Silvy also with former local Rob Patterson, who is back in Mildura for a spell.

The three wheeled brigade will line up in a round robin test, where each team will be trying to gain as many points as possible to get them through to an all important semi final and a cut throat Final on the night. Track space will be at a premium, especially at turn one of lap one, where all riders seem to want to have their front wheel on such a tiny piece of territory.

Passengers have been swapped temporarily, in some cases; most notable being Mick Powell, who is replacing Byren Gates’ regular swinger, Mick O’Loughlin and Dale Knights who will swing with Tim Bichard.

Amongst those more settled combinations are Jason Bradshaw / Steve Behsmann, Chris Holmes / Neale Hancock, Warren Monson / Deven Gates, Dale Milner / Jamie Knudsen, Clint Mayes / Andrew Summerhayes as well as the Cohrs brothers, Simon and Mark, who will flash out the new kevlars this week. A sharp and most colourful design will attract even more attention to the usually humble team leader, Simon, who, since his success with Adelaide’s Chris Pascoe at last years Australian Championships at Gillman, has realised that he is a serious contender whether steering his machine locally or swinging with Pascoe as part of the Sidecar Grand Slam circus as it travels around Australia. The Sidecar Grand Slam will come to Mildura on Saturday 14^th January 2012, right at the peak of Mildura’s season.

Solo action will be among a most even field where we will see the Sedgmen brothers, Ryan and Justin, Brenton Barnfield, Brock Gates and Chris Ferguson riding hard against each other. Justin Sedgmen returned home from England about four weeks ago and has settled into his local regular work, however he will be looking to sharpen his skills after the “freshen up” time he has had, as he will want to do well in the 2012 Australian Championships series, which will be held during the second half of January.

It is pleasing to see such a competitive field of solos in action so early in the season, with some more locals expected to front the tapes at the Victorian Solo Title, which will be held in Mildura on the 3^rd December.

It is understood that those locals yet to return, will ride in the Victorian Title meeting, which Sunraysia patrons will look forward to with some delight.

The biggest and hottest news for Sunraysia speedway patrons however, is that the next meeting which will be held at Olympic Park will be a fully fledged International Sidecar Challenge meeting, which will take the form of a “Four team tournament”.

Four teams of Sidecars, each with four machines apiece, will contest the Mildura Sidecar Four Team Challenge on WEDNESDAY 16^th November. The meeting is being staged at Olympic Park on a Wednesday, just four days after the 2012 World Sidecar Speedway Championship is held at Murray Bridge on Saturday 12^th November.

The Wednesday meeting allows the International guys to travel and get a second meeting in the week. Club President, Gavin Sedgmen said, ”We know that Mildura fans will turn out, even for a mid week event, as locals understand that the Club is always looking to be innovative and opportune with its promotions. Sunraysia speedway folk know that the Club will always try to put on a show at the best available time”.  Sedgmen added, “This is the only available time for an International Sidecar meeting – and patrons will be excited to see how the Mildura boys go against such talented competition from overseas”.

The four teams to contest the Challenge will be representing England and New Zealand, with a team representing Australia all racing against a team all from Mildura.

An International permit has been granted for the meeting, which delights the Mildura Club as the meeting will fulfill the dreams of many of the International Sidecar stars who have always wanted to ride on the tight and tricky Olympic Park circuit.

All four teams who will ride for NZ and England will be engaged in the Murray Bridge meeting. Our Club has been gratefully assisted by both Mick Headland and Mark Mitchell, who are great supporters of Olympic Park and have been working with Mildura Club officials behind the scenes to make the meeting come to fruition.

The four team tournament format will give Sunraysia fans a great look at all the International stars as well as the guys who will represent both Australia and Mildura. It will be a great feather in the cap of Mildura when local fans will be able to measure the strength of Mildura’s home based riders against the very best in the World.

This week, however, Mildura’s gates will open at 5:00pm, with a full catering service being available to patrons. BYO is not permitted by law. Some grandstand seating is available.

A Junior program will precede the senior meeting.

New timetable for all meetings this season will be

Sign on                                    4:30 to 5:30

PUBLIC gates open                5:00

Riders Briefing                        5:30 to 5:45  (now held before Practice)

Senior Practice                       5:45 to 6:15  (riders must be ready)

Junior meeting                        6:30 to 7:15

Senior Riders parade              7:20 to 7:25

Senior Racing                         7:30 onwards

All members please note there will be a working bee on this Sunday October 2 at 9am. We need all to attend to get things ready for the season.

Junior winter series speedway

Set up and sign on 1pm

Racing 2pm – 4pm seniors and juniors will alternate during the day, Juniors will have a meeting and the seniors will have practice.

4.15 pack up followed by refreshments.

Nomination to Roly on email rolandpaver@bigpond.com ph 0408 502397 nominations to Roly by the Wednesday before the meeting. You must nominate so that a program can be finalized.

Winter speedway practice

Sunday afternoon 1pm to 3pm  contact Sedgy on sedgy7@bigpond.com or 0448 252015 let him know if you are coming down to practice

Set up and sign on 12.30

Practice from 1pm to 3pm (Note times have changed)

Pack up

All people wishing to participate are required to assist with set up and pack up.

Costs

Winter series – meetings $20 per entrant seniors and Juniors

Sunday practice -  $10 per junior entrant and $10 for seniors

Dates

April 30 Saturday – Winter series 2pm to 4pm

May 7 & 8 – Junior club Camp and Trail ride

May 22 Sunday – Practice 10am to 12.30pm

June 11 Saturday – Winter series  Classic meeting and Juniors special times 12noon sign on,  1pm  Racing

June 19 Sunday – Practice 10am to 12.30pm

July 9 Saturday – Winter series 2pm to 4pm Jason Crump Shield

July 17 Sunday – Practice 10am to 12.30pm

Aug 6 Saturday – Winter series 2pm to 4pm

Aug 21 Sunday – Practice 10am to 12.30pm

Sept 10 Saturday – Winter series 2pm to 4pm Leigh Adams Cup

Sept 18 Sunday – Practice 10am to 12.30pm

Oct 1 Saturday – Winter series 2pm to 4pm

Oct 16 Sunday – Practice 10am to 12.30pm

Junior club meetings are on the 1^st Wednesday of the month starting at 7.00pm and go for about 1 hour.

These meetings are to organise what’s on and keep everyone informed what’s happening and to enjoy some fellowship.

All parents are invited to participate in all activities so that it is enjoyable for all, not just the kids!!!

Download the calendar: winter Dates

A historic Mildura speedway season will draw to a close this Saturday night at Olympic Park with the conduct of the “Atlas Sheds – 2011 Sidecar Masters” event which will feature the “newest” Sidecar sensations in the land as Chris Pascoe and the often flamboyant, Simon Cohrs, head the bill as the newest and most successful Sidecar combination going around.

Local rider and former passenger Cohrs, answered a call from the Adelaide based Pascoe, just early last week after the Pascoe brothers had had a bad smash at the Title venue and the passenger, Adam had been severely injured, putting him out of the Title Qualifying meeting.

Cohrs, who is well regarded as a passenger, would have probably just been a spectator at the Title if not for the call from Pascoe.

They came to an agreement and Simon set off for Adelaide on Friday morning and met Pascoe for the first time at 3:00pm on race day.  It must have been a “meant to be,” as the pair gelled right from the start and began discussing operational matters before turning to race tactics. It was obvious, as relayed from observers that Pascoe hung on virtually every word from Cohrs, who was the most experienced of the pair.

Cohrs had a number of years swinging with Jason Bradshaw and, for this season, has ridden his own machine with brother, Mark on the side. The Cohrs boys progress has been successful, although it was generally agreed that they were not of Australian Championship standard as yet.

On Friday the new pair moved successfully through the “Qualifying” meeting for the Title and on Saturday set themselves to do as well as they could for the Title itself. They had nothing to lose.

WELL ! . . . . they did better than that, they top scored the meeting with twelve points and consequently were able to take first pick at the gates for starting position in the Championship Final.

A wonderful effort from two guys who had not met until the day before and by the end of the Title meeting they could place a 4^th place sash over their shoulder – a wonderful result.

The Pascoe and Cohrs team now head up the field in the “Atlas Sheds – Sidecar Masters” event in the knowledge they now have much work ahead as their Australian Title result also qualifies them for a start in the 2012 World Speedway Sidecar Championship to be held in Australia in November of this year. How exciting is that ?

Regular candidates in the Mildura field will be Mildura’s two representative teams in the Title in Warren Monson / Deven Gates and Byren Gates / Mick O’Loughlin along with Rick Stephens / Dean Hobbs and Andy O’Rourke / Jason Mayes and Jason Bradshaw / Steve Behsmann.

The local riders will be wanting to establish some “bragging” rights to take into the winter, which for some of the teams, will involve re-building and trying to steal some more horsepower for their machine.

Racing, as always will be keen, with any of the teams a chance to take the major prize money.

As often happens, opportunities will need to be taken when offered, as we saw with the Pascoe / Cohrs combination last weekend.

These local teams will be joined by first time Mildura visitors in the SA team of Michael Hoogland / Andy Menz and Victorian visitors, Mark Radford / Matt Putkins, with new youngsters in Lindsay McGregor / Mitch Duncan along with Chris Holmes / Neale Hancock, Scott Munro / Reece Yettman and Corey Gates / Adon Pearce. Hoogland is the son of a seasoned Sidecar exponent in Peiter, who rode and kept alive motorcycle speedway in Tasmania for many years after leaving Adelaide for the Apple Isle.

Passenger, Menz will also team up in the Classic Sidecars in the support events when he jumps in board with his more famous father, Peter Menz, who started his speedway career many years ago as passenger for the great Deane Taylor who rode one of the very early two stroke race machines which was powered by a TZ Yamaha road race engine, straight from the Yamaha factory in Japan. Menz then completed his senior career on the throttle and now has decided to start again with his son as swinger. Classics are the guys who have all the fun back riding and will include Sunraysia’s hot shots in Roly Paver and Rex Byrne against Rex’s son Tim with Mick Powell. Brodie Gebhart and Adon Pearce.

Solos again will feature as support events with a solid five man list. Robbie Medson returns from Adelaide to ride against Brenton Barnfield, Chris Ferguson, Brock Gates and Tom Hedley, who returns after a long lay off from the sport. Family duties and engine issues have caused the Hedley hiatus, but Tom is sure to show his skills trackside along with the other local boys.

Next meeting at Olympic Park will be the Victorian Speedway Quad Cup, which will be held on Saturday 16^th April. The Quad meeting, whilst outside the regularly advertised Mildura Speedway season will be an interesting adjunct to the Olympic Park season. Local Quad riders have been prepared to travel to get competition and some of those riders who regularly compete at away venues will come to Mildura to get a taste of real speedway on the tighter confines of Olympic Park.  Quad riders have been used as support events at many speedway meetings over the last couple of years and it is thought that the time is right to introduce a Title of their own.

This weekend gates open at 5:00pm, with senior Practice set to begin at 5:50. A Junior meeting will commence after the senior practice at 6:30, with the “Atlas Sheds – Sidecar Masters” to commence at 7:30 sharp. A parade of riders and an introduction of the fourth place getters in last week’s Australian Championship, Chris Pascoe and Simon Cohrs will take place prior to racing.

Download the press release written by Brendon Gledhill: PRE – Atlas Sheds Sidecar Masters 020411

An adrenalin charged Warren Monson and Deven Gates, on a new concept race machine, stormed to a massive win in the 2011 North West Funerals – Sidecar Spectacular, at Olympic Park last night.

The Monson / Gates team was in scintillating form for the entire night, not beaten over their four heat rides, a semi-final and then the North West Funerals final to win the Keith “Curley” Carmes Trophy for the thirty-fourth running of the popular Mildura event.

The event lived up to the name of “Spectacular”, as the racing was superb on an excellent track. All riders were strong in their praise of the consistency of the surface which provided predictable grip and no dust for the entire night. Whilst the track had mostly sidecar events during the night a small field of solo riders took to the track and showed great skills in the “drivier” conditions. Classics, too were on song for the night.

Some wonderful contests were seen during the event where both Monson / Gates (12 points) and Jason Bradshaw / Steve Behsmann (11) dominated one division from teenage sensations, Dylan Blain / Aaron Stewart and O’Rourke / Mayes on countback from Radford / Stagg, while Queenslanders Scott Christopher / Trent Koppe (12) lead the other set from Gates / O’Loughlin (8) and Chris Holmes / Neale Hancock (8) with Kiwi visitors Andrew Buchanan / Phillipa Burns (7) and Mayes / Summerhayes being the other finalists.

Massive crowd support was out for the “Dad’s Army” team of Holmes / Hancock, who were keen to send a message to the MA selectors for leaving them out of the Australian Title Qualifier, when they went on a “Barnstorming” ride to success during the latter part of the night. They were particularly unlucky to have a race red – lighted” whilst they were leading over the Christopher / Koppe team and then again in the semi-final when they had had some wonderful racing, again against the Far North Queensland team and would have qualified first into the Carmes Trophy event, but for a small infield excursion on the last turn of the final lap of the semi. A gutted Holmes limped back to the pits wondering what could have been, although they should acknowledge that they were in fine company and had already done so well – the sport can sometimes be so cruel.

The large crowd enjoyed the racing for the whole night as there was action in every heat from the eighteen sidecars in the field. The Club is particularly grateful to Adelaide’s, Mark Mitchell and Broken Hill’s “Bart” Stephens for assisting getting some fill-in riders to take the vacancies in the program. Former Aussie Champ, Gary Moon, was flood locked in Townsville and had to be replaced and the young Headland brothers had machinery issues in their race preparation.

The best sidecar team to come from New Zealand in Buchanan and Burns continued to impress with some excellent racing. The team enjoyed the opportunity to practice informally at Mildura last Wednesday night and then at Gillman last Thursday night.

The NZ couple were full of praise for Mildura having a dedicated motorcycle track and one where racing and racecraft was able to be practiced. They were glowing in their praise too, of the excellent preparation of the track for such a heavy amount of traffic and said that they could get drive all the way around the Olympic Park circuit. The Kiwis have declared that they will be back and will base themselves in Mildura again next season in a bid to improve NZ Sidecar speedway by just racing against the best, whenever they can.

The night’s racing was chock full of incidents, with some riders suffering machine problems, or in some cases terminal engine issues, as was the case with Mildura’s top team of Byren Gates and Mick O’Loughlin. The “Gater Racing” machine came to an instant stop when the engine destroyed itself when Gates was part way down the back straight. The instant loss of momentum saw Gates veer slightly to the right, a natural reaction and was clipped by Munro / Gates coming past just slightly to Gates’ inside, sending the Gates and O’Loughlin combo into the air and a big fall. After First aid attention the score line was, bodies fine, engine – bad.

Another sad “out” for the night was with visiting four times national Champion, Glenn O’Brien and Aaron Maynard from Perth, who suffered a blown head gasket whilst leading in their second heat ride for the night. A very apologetic O’Brien addressed the large Mildura crowd, telling them that he would be a regular competitor at Olympic Park next season with his rejuvenated team and that the Olympic Park track holds a very special place in the O’Brien family’s hearts, as he just loves to race at the very testing venue.

Perhaps O’Brien and Gates are fortunate that their mechanical woes have occurred just two weeks before Championship time rather that at either the Qualifying meeting on Friday 25th March or at the Championship meeting on Saturday 26th March. Fill in rider, Shane Evans and Alan Gale were also the victims of “gremlins” during the day as they blew a trailer tyre on the way to Mildura and then had some mechanical issues causing them to also withdraw from the last half of the meeting.

Monson, a race mechanic by profession has been working on a different firing configuration for his one litre, four cylinder machine, which effectively turns the four cylinder engine in to a “big banger” twin, as is now used in some World Superbike racing. The Monson machine shows incredible torque characteristics and drives so positively from the turns, that it has taken Monson and passenger Gates, in particular, some weeks of trials to come to terms with the huge power which is so readily and sometimes, instantly available.

The Keith “Curley” Carmes event was always going to be a hot event with Monson winning the toss from Christopher and selecting the inside gate position. The Queensland pair, who have been away from serious racing for more than two months due to the regular FNQ flooding and bad weather of the top of Queensland, selected the second gate position. The Kiwis chose the number three gate, leaving local stars, Bradshaw and Behsmann, to the outside position.

Once the start was affected there was the regular “final type”, close riding and jostling for position, going into turn one, although Bradshaw at fourth, realizing that there might be no way through, switched back to the inside of the track from his wide start position. Some nudging amongst all riders then trapped Bradshaw, perhaps not unfairly, into an infield excursion which left him on the centre green and out of the race. Christopher got a marginally better start than Monson and lead into turn two, although the latter had amazing acceleration from turn two and by the start of turn three was in command of the event. Monson continued to dominate, even though Christopher chased hard and extending his lead with every drive from every turn.

The Monson machine certainly looks the goods with the way it delivers the power to the ground. The noise is also quite distinctive as it does just sound like a massive ‘twin” cylinder with that guttural growl as it tears at the ground.

Monson fully deserved his win and celebrated the awarding of the “Curley” Carmes Trophy, presented to them by Curley’s great grandson, Bradley, who made the presentation on behalf of the family and in front of family matriarch, Betty.

Solo action showed good racing with all riders showing skills and determination on a track that was deeper than what they would normally ride.

The spoils were shared amongst Brenton Barnfield, Rob Medson and Chris Ferguson, who has made a return to racing. All solo heats were strongly fought with all riders showing improvement as they learned to cope with the conditions. This small group are keen to learn and keener to gain experience in all conditions, which is a switch from some of their more experienced International colleagues.

The rider of the night, however, was the youngest rider in the field, just having his second senior ride, in Sean Peterson, who was still grieving from the passing of his great grandfather, the late centenarian, Ray Slade, from Merbein. The young Peterson rode with a heavy heart, but would have well pleased his “Pop” with the effort which he showed.

Classic sidecars again put on a good show, with Dale Milner, with Rex Byrne on side being the best with a ten point haul. Brodie Gebhart / Mick Powell on seven, were next from Tim Byrne / Adon Pearce, who finished just one point in arrears. Visitors Graham Rowley / Terry Hutchinson were outclassed by the locals, who are getting plenty of practice and plenty of rides.

Next meeting at Olympic Park will be the “Atlas Sheds – Mildura Sidecar Masters to be held on Saturday 2nd April. Again Club organisers are expecting full fields to nominate, especially with some of the northerners, who will be returning home after the Australian Titles which will be held in Adelaide in a fortnight. As the Mildura Club has such a strong contingent of quality of Sidecars a great meeting is expected for the final meeting of the year.

Easter too, brings the Easter Arena Motorcross as part of the Mildura Easter Power Sports promotion. Olympic Park will host the Arena Motorcross, under lights, on Easter Saturday night, 23rd April.

Written by Brendon Gledhill

Download the Press Release: POST – 2011 NWFunerals – Sidecar Speccy 120311

A capacity field will contest the 34th running of the North West Funerals – Mildura Sidecar Spectacular at Mildura’s Olympic Park, on Saturday night.

The massive eighteen team contest will be run with the winners to receive the Keith “Curley” Carmes Trophy, a prestigious award for the longest running, non -Title speedway meeting in the country.

Past Australian Champions, Glenn O’Brien, from Perth and Queenslanders, Gary Moon and Scott Christopher / Trent Koppe are all engaged as well as State Champions in Byren Gates, Jason Bradshaw and current Victorian Champions, Warren Monson / Deven Gates, who will all use the Olympic Park meeting as their primary hit out before the Australian Championship to be held in just two weeks time.

All States are present in the entry list, which represents one of the strongest fields put together for a Sidecar Spectacular in many years. Mildura Club officials had difficulty in making the final selection and format, given that the field was so even.

Pressure will be on all eighteen teams right from the outset as in each set of nine teams, only the top four will race off for a position in the North West Funerals Final, where only two teams from each division will make it into the main event.

Last week’s Sidecar Shootout was the precursor for this week’s Spectacular, as the field is considerably stronger, especially with the in – form, Glenn O’Brien making a welcome return to Mildura by popular demand. O’Brien has resumed his Sidecar career after a few years of lay off. The spark which has re-ignited O’Brien’s passion is possibly the chance to now win a World Championship in Sidecar Speedway which was only imagined when O’Brien retired. O’Brien is in charge of a very professional outfit, with the team travelling from WA to Adelaide and Mildura each week prior to the Australian Title meeting, to get the track craft back on edge, with a hope to add another Australian Title to his already full mantle.

Moon too, is in great form and like O’Brien, he covers massive distance to play his sport. Moon was one of the first riders to ever go to England. He took Sidecar speedway to the UK back in the 1990’s, just after he won his Australian Championship.

Fellow banana benders, Scott Christopher ./ Trent Koppe, have also been long term travelers, but living in Townsville and Cairns, that is part of the accepted fate of living so far north. They are making a heafty start to their 2011 Australian Championship assault by riding into the Mildura Spectacular as their first key meeting for a little while.

One should never discount the very fast, Warren Monson / Deven Gates. Monson has been playing with a new machinery concept, which sees him riding a brutish Suzuki machine, altered by crankshaft design, to have his four cylinder engine operate as a massive compression, “twin” cylinder machine. Monson has learned well from his vocation as mechanic for Team Suzuki in Australian Superbike racing, where he has spannered for Shawn Giles and this year for Mildura’s Josh Waters team mate, Troy Herfoss. This inside knowledge has made many sidecar stalwarts sit up and take plenty of notice of the usually quiet, except for when he is on the race track – Monson.

Byren Gates / Mick O’Loughlin have been in good recent form, taking second place in each of the Victorian and NSW Titles for this year and Byro having a great night last week when he, with brother Deven, took second place behind Mark Mitchell / Tom Golding in the Shootout final. Jason Bradshaw / Steven Behsmann and Andrew O’Rourke / Jason Mayes are not without chances nor is Clint Mayes / Andrew Summerhayes, after a good third place last week in strong company. The Headland brothers, Trent and Jess have taken some significant scalps, including that of Trent’s father-in – law, Glenn O’Brien at their most recent outing at Gillman.

Our Kiwi visitors, Andrew Buchanan / Phillipa Burns showed good skills last week, only to have their chances curtailed by mechanical problems once they had been tipped over in a contest. They have shown to be the best team to come to Mildura from the land of the Long White Cloud and have been like sponges soaking up information and track advice from the local riders in the Pits last weekend. It is pleasing to see folk who are prepared to travel to better themselves and “Spud” and Phillipa make no secret that they are here to learn and take back skills and set up information to their homeland.

Another team who will be very interesting to watch are the teenage Queenslanders, Dylan Blain / Aaron Stewart, who are sure footed and smooth on their machine. Blain, while now resident of Townsville has strong connections to Mildura as his grandfather, John Blain is a former Mayor of Mildura City. The Blain and Stewart families travel countless miles in their search for improvement. It is predicted that they are future Australian Champions and their present skills demonstrate that it may well be true. The youngsters have ridden at Gillman already this season, getting in some valuable practice ready for the Nationals later this month.

Munro / Yetman, Holmes / Hancock, Milner / Gates and the Cohrs brothers, Simon and Mark, are more local teams who will take good points off good riders, such is the nature of the racing format. Broken Hill’s Ricky Stephens / Dean Hobbs and last week’s semi finalist, Mark Radford / Matt Putkins, are also not without their chances. Patterson / Gawne are a new combination although, they did podium at the Victorian Title at Broadford a few weeks ago.

Great support will again be provided by a keen group of Solo riders, who entertained us well last week. SA rider Rob Medson, will resume his battle with Brenton Barnfield and last week’s first timer Sean Peterson, who made a splendid debut taking a win and a second place in his first night of competition, with local rider Chris Ferguson making a come back to the track after some time away.

Classic Sidecars will again see themselves as the feature event on the program. This collection of “gentlemen” enjoy their riding to the full, with their satisfaction only being exceeded by their enthusiasm for riding their older machinery and mixing good racing with lots of fun.

Gates will open at 5:00pm, with Senior Practice set to start at 600pm. A junior meeting will follow, although it will be much reduced as many riders will be in Gippsland for a junior meeting there. The North West Funerals  – Sidecar Spectacular will get under way at 7:30 sharp, with patrons being reminded that there must be No BYO by law. Olympic Park has a full catering service with great food and hot and cold drinks.

Written by Brendon Gledhill

Download the Press Release: PRE – 2011 NW Funerals Sidecar Spectacular 090311

2009 Australian Sidecar champions, Mark Mitchell and Tom Golding, blasted their way through strong opposition to win the Dudley Bradshaw Trophy and take the prize in the 2011 Riordan’s Paint & Panel Sidecar Shootout at Olympic Park on Saturday night.

The Birdwood, SA, based pair rode solidly all night qualifying highest in their group of seven teams, but just on countback from fellow SA riders Damien Niesche / Jack Spear and Mal German / Sean Colby, with locals Clint Mayes / Andrew Summerhayes taking the last chance into the semi-final.

In the other set of seven, Andrew O’Rourke / Jason Mayes topped the score from Jason Bradshaw / Steven Behsmann on countback from Byren Gates, with brother Deven on side and Mark Radford / Matt Putkins in the fourth qualifying place.

Some excellent riding was seen during the course of the heats, with NZ visitors, Andrew Buchanan / Phillipa Burns enjoying their first ever outing, riding in Australia.

The Buchanan / Burns team were very tidy and soaked up the atmosphere and information gleaned from fellow riders, saying that they totally enjoyed their experience and rated Olympic Park as the best track that they had ever ridden.

Hard but clean racing was the order of the night as all teams gave no quarter and provided some wonderful entertainment to the good crowd in attendance.

As was expected the last three events were the features of the night, with the first semi-final making an impact right before the start when one of the night’s fast men, Niesche, could hear an engine noise immediately when the machine was “bump” started. Niesche and his crew worked on the bike for the full two minutes allowed, but on restart the machine still had the bad noise. Niesche decided that the race was not worth blowing an engine so, withdrew from the start.

Mitchell made good from his inside gate start and lead the hard charging Mal German for just over half the race. Local tea, Mayes / Summerhayes, had been closely watching the German lines for the entire journey and when German drifted slightly wide on the corner due to high entry speed, the wily Mayes was able to duck underneath and take the second place, which would mean a place in the Riordan’s Paint & Panel final for the night. The partisan crowd, roared their approval of every good move made by the locals and were generous in their applause for good track work shown by any of the teams.

The second of the semis was also not without drama, as right from the start it was obvious that there would be no quarter given, especially as there were our top three local tams fighting for just two spots in the main event.

The tapes flew and O’Rourke, Bradshaw and Gates all moved together, with Bradshaw, between O’Rourke and Gates, just lifting slightly from the line. When his machine came down it clipped Gates’ machine putting Bradshaw slightly off angle, which then took him to the infield and out of the race. Bradshaw maybe expected a race stoppage, but he was deemed to have contributed to his own demise. Gates made the best of the start and went on the take the event, although O’Rourke chased very hard as though it was the main final.

The next point of interest was the toss of coin and gate selection for the main final, where Gates selected correctly and took the inside gate position. Toss loser, Mitchell, then made the bold step of selecting the outside gate with his choice, leaving the two second placed semi-finalists to pick between gates two and three.

Gates flew from the start ahead of Mitchell who stayed wide on the track, while Mayes consolidated in third, with O’Rourke, who nearly lost passenger Mayes, then charging from behind. By half race distance, O’Rourke had picked up Mayes and set out to chase Mitchell, who was gathering a lot of momentum. Gates meanwhile was looking good, even though his regular, and very lightweight passenger was replaced by brother Deven and they continued on riding good lines.

Mitchell, however, who is a meticulous planner of events and circumstances, was positioning himself to jump whenever Gates allowed a small space in which Mitchell could fit. Mitchell and passenger, Tom Golding, have an uncanny understanding and communication of where to be and what to do and this final was no exception. Mitchell was able to just muscle in on Gates, when Gates was just half a bike width off the inside line. Mitchell carried excellent corner speed and put his nose right beside Gates and then the advantage went to Mitchell as they raced into the straight again.

Once Mitchell had established his lead Gates was not able to retaliate, nor were Mayes, who finished in third or O’Rourke at the rear. Mitchell enjoyed his well planned win and was congratulated infield by “Noddy” Riordan and delighted to win the beautifully presented, Dudley Bradshaw trophy from the family.

Solo support was great, with a wonderful debut to youngster, Sean Peterson, who picked up a good second place and then a win in his opening meeting. Best on the night was SA visitor, Rob Medson, who showed that his efforts to travel to many tracks and not be scared of any of them, was paying dividends already. Medson has benefitted from a couple of good outings as a reserve in the recent Australian Solo Titles. He is a good watcher and listener and is reaping the rewards of his learning and humility.

Classic Sidecars were also classic in the meeting with some wonderful challenges being thrown to stalwarts, Roly Paver / Rex Byrne, especially from Byrnes’ son Tim, with Mick Powell and Brodie Gebhart / Adon Pearce, who both worked hard as they each rode the top division as well as the classic supports.

The night was not without some potential drama, as Corey Gates / Adon Pearce just clipped the fence with their sidecar wheel coming down the back straight and flipped and cartwheeled down the straight. A big fall, especially to Gates, saw immediate Ambulance attention given to both men, with Gates being the recipient of a lengthier first aid. Thankfully both rider and passenger got up and walked back to the pits unaided. The Gates machine was badly damaged in the many cartwheels before coming to a stop near the fence.

An interested spectator in the Olympic Park crowd last night was also, current and first ever World Sidecar Speedway Champion, Mick Headland and his new wife Karine. Mick’s passenger, Paul Waters, is having his operation this week to remove the steel work from his leg, which was the result of their big crash last year at the home track of our current NZ visitors.

Mick is letting his sons, Trent and Jess, get back together for their tilt at the Australian championship in three weeks time and will wait himself until Paul is fine to ride. Headland senior has been seeded directly into the 2011 Australian Title as the current World Champion.

Action will continue at Olympic Park in just a week’s time as the Club will conduct the North West Funerals – 2011 Sidecar Spectacular, which will be jam packed with Australian Champions and those who are contenders for this year’s Australian Title which will be held at Gillman, Adelaide on the 25th and 26th March. The Sidecar Spectacular is the longest running, non title meeting in Australian Speedway and has drawn entries from the best riders ever in three wheeled speedway in Australia and overseas.

Glenn O’Brien, four times Australian Champion and still track record holder at Mildura is back, by popular demand as is former Champ, Gary Moon from Queensland. O’Brien has made a massive and very professional return to the sport, travelling from his WA base now with a very young and talented passenger and big ”Slim” back on the spanners.. The advent of a possible World Title is obviously part of the reason for O’Brien’s return, but Australian sidecar speedway is all the better for one of the hardest chargers ever in the game to make a comeback.

Joining this talented field will be a lad with strong Mildura roots in sixteen year old, Dylan Blain / Aaron Stewart. Blain is the grandson of former Mildura Mayor, John Blain and is already touted as the future of Australian Sidecar speedway. Blain has graduated from Juniors and straight onto the massive one litre machine. Returning too, will be NZ pair of Buchanan / Burns, who will be better for their ride last night. Mechanical problems lead to their early retirement, but they looked the best of any NZ visitors of the past.

Written by Brendan Gledhill

Download the Press Release: POST – 2011 Riordan’s Sidecar Shootout, 060311