A strong band of talented motorcyclists were presented with their awards at the 63rd Annual dinner of Mildura Motorcycle Club last Saturday night.

The well attended dinner was held in the Auditorium of the Coomealla Memorial Sporting Club, the major sponsor of the Motorcycle Club, in keeping with the now long established tradition of mutual co-operation between the two bodies.

Individual presenters paid tribute to the various recipients in the particular categories of achievement in the Motorcycle Club.

The competition clubman, “Rigby Trophy” was made to Club Captain, Brock Gates, who has completed an excellent season, riding and excelling in every discipline offered in the Club.

The Motorcross, “Stevenson Trophy,” was presented to Life member and Club Motorcross stalwart, Rohan Hollis, who continues his riding activity at the top level well into middle age.

In what was an impressive roundup of awards to the younger Sedgmen brother, Justin, who is now riding in England and Europe professionally, he was awarded the “Nemstas Trophy”, speedway solo aggregate, while the Byren Gates and Mick O’Loughlin Sidecar team took out the “Teague Trophy,” for the speedway Sidecar aggregate. Gates and O’Loughlin finished their season in fine form, taking a sixth place in the 2010 Australian Title meeting in Newcastle over the Easter weekend.

The Dirt Karters Trophy went to the most highly decorated driver in the country when Rob Latta took the award. Rob has two National Titles as well as many State Championships and podium positions to his name, in what has been a memorable, even if well travelled season for him and his family.

The newest Trophy in the list was the initial awarding of the Quad Racers trophy, which went to Club committeeman, Troy Mills. Mills has been most active in getting and assisting recruits to the Quad discipline, which includes, even three generations of his own family. The category continues with good growth and great entertainment. Read the rest of this entry »

Australian international speedway rider Leigh Adams has announced that January 5, 2011 will be the date of his Testimonial meeting, to be held at his home track of Olympic Park, Mildura.

Adams is currently competing in his final year of European competition and hopes to go out with a bang on January 5.

“I hope to put on one of the biggest speedway events our sport has seen for many years” said Adams from his UK base.

“It will be a special night of racing for all the fans that have supported me over the years and this will be my thank you to them as well as a celebration of the career I’ve had in the sport.”

Adams is currently in negotiations with two foreign grand prix riders and he hopes to announce their participation in coming months – should he pull this off it will be huge news for fans down under.

The meeting will feature a very strong field of senior riders, some Junior competition, as well as Australia’s top sidecar riders and a host of other cameo appearances by champions past and present.

“The Sidecar field is nearly sorted” said Adams, “and all but one of the competitors rode in the Australian Championship this year”.

The odd men out are actually the brilliant duo of Glenn and Nathan O’Brien, who jumped at the chance to take part.

“What an honour to be part of such an event” said Glenn.

“As soon as I got the phone call there was not even a pause, I just said put us in and nobody will keep us away!”

“Leigh has done more for Australian Speedway than anyone else I know and this will be my thank you to him for the enjoyment that he has given me and many others over the years”.

More information on the Leigh Adams Testimonial will be released in coming months – should be a beauty!

A wonderful night of Sidecar racing brought Olympic Park’s competition season to a brilliant close last night, when the Broken Hill team of Rick Howse and Adam Commons stormed to a superb win in the Coca-Cola Sidecar Spectacular final over some very tough opposition.

Top points scorers for the night were Mildura riders Warren Monson and Deven Gates, who rode with plenty of speed, taking the first selection in the final on countback from the eventual winners. Third on points were fellow locals, Byren Gates and Mick O’Loughlin, who capped off an excellent season with another solid performance, while just sneaking into the final was World Champion, Mick Headland, with youngest son, Jesse in the chair. A three way Countback decided positions five through to seven, indicating the strength of the meeting all night.

Howse and Commons were delighted to receive the Keith “Curley” Carmes Trophy for winning the 33^rd Spectacular, which has finished off their best season ever in Sidecar speedway. The popular duo was full of praise for the slick conduct of the meeting and the excellent track which was presented to riders. They also paid tribute to all team members who have helped over many seasons of top competition, particularly, Phil Austen, who has spent many years of dedication and travel while on the spanners for his Silver City colleagues. Read the rest of this entry »

The current World Speedway Sidecar Champion, Mick Headland, from Murray Bridge, will head up a great group of sidecars to contest the 2010 Coca-Cola, Sidecar Spectacular at Mildura’s Olympic Park on Sunday night, 25th April.

Headland came away from the recent Australian Championships held at Newcastle, with a hard earned fourth place, even though he was riding with his youngest son, Jesse, in place of his injured regular passenger, Paul Waters, who was badly injured in a track accident in New Zealand back in January of this year.

Headland is a class act in any company, but he will not get many things his own way this weekend as the “hot shots” from that Australian Title, Broken Hill’s, Rick Howse and Adam Commons, will be keen to show that their Newcastle form, where they finished in second place, was not any flash in the pan. The Broken Hill pair have been slick all year and have just selected those meetings which have given them their best Title opportunity training as the important ones for the season.

Howse and Commons were the fastest team for the entire Newcastle meeting, winning all five of their heat rides on Championship night and just failing to win the major prize in the cut throat final. Gate selection was possibly just slightly wrong for the Broken Hill combo, but all present could understand that in choosing the inside gate position, it did give some insurance over the five times Champion, Darrin Treloar for Howse, but they did not expect to see the wonderful start that was gained by the eventual winners, Jason Aldridge and Cal Campbell. Read the rest of this entry »

Two of the worlds finest exponents of Freestyle Motorcross will be at Mildura’s Easter Arena Cross event, both as competitors in the racing, but will also put on a FMX display during the interval session, with what will be a fine display of their great aerial skills.

Cameron Sinclair and Blake “Bilko” Williams, who are two of Australia’s finest, will be in town to “enjoy the Mildura Easter Power Sports weekend, which they have heard so much about”, said Sinclair, when speaking to Mildura Club Secretary, Brendon Gledhill, earlier this week.

Always the “rev heads,” both Cameron and Bilko were coming to soak up some great motor sport atmosphere and thought that they might throw the bikes in as well, as they are being joined by two of Australia’s very serious motorcross riders in the Mosig brothers, Kade and Chase, who will also line up in the Saturday night ArenaX under lights at Olympic Park.

Both Mosig boys are already in the top half of the field in both the Pro Lite and Pro Open classes after round one of the 2010 MX Nationals, held at Horsham just last weekend, so they will bring some serious form to the Mildura ArenaX event. Both Kade and Chase have had some fine National and International results in their sport over recent times and Kade is particularly looking forward to re-acquainting himself with the Olympic Park circuit, under lights on a balmy Mildura evening.

Some excellent entries are being received for the ArenaX, so Sunraysia fans and their visitors to town will enjoy a spectacular event on Saturday night.

All four lads are looking forward to riding at Mildura and then getting down to some socializing at the Mildura 100 Ski race on the next day. They have friends who will race the Mildura 100, so will be part of a large contingent who will spend their Easter in Mildura, filling the town with motorsports fans.

Sinclair, just last weekend, was doing his “back flip” specialty, on the arena at the MCG as part of the pre-game entertainment prior to the Hawthorn – Melbourne AFL game held at the “G” last Saturday afternoon.

Both Sinclair and Williams have concentrated on the Freestyle part of the sport even though they are both good Motorcross and ArenaX competitors. They will ride Mildura “just for FUN”. Read the rest of this entry »

Five of Mildura’s regular and top Sidecar Speedway teams will be in Newcastle this Easter weekend to try and take Australian Championship glory from a world class field which has nominated for the Title meetings. Two teams from Broken Hill and three teams from Mildura will travel to Newcastle to contest the action for the 2010 Title.

Top Victorian team of Byren Gates and Mick O’Loughlin are seeded riders directly into the Championship final on the Sunday night whereas the other Mildura challengers will be the team of Warren Monson and Deven Gates, and Andrew O’Rourke and Jason Mayes, who will need to finish in the top ten teams in the Saturday night Qualifying meeting to get another ride in the final the following night.

The Gates / O’Loughlin combination has had a wonderful season so far, being the best local crew in a very tight bunch of Mildura based teams, but the Monson / Gates and Howse / Commons team can never be under-estimated. Monson probably has the most powerful machine going around and will take some scalps if he has a track which allows him the transfer that horsepower into drive and speed on the track.

The O’Rourke / Mayes team are the great improvers of the last season locally and they have been taking some away rides to get experience ready for this Title foray.

Broken Hill is well represented by Ricky Howse and Adam Commons, who will defend their bronze medal position from last year and the sparkling new combination of Rick Stephens and Dean Hobbs, who are probably the biggest improvers in Australian Sidecar speedway today. A little bit of luck to either of these teams, who both need to go through the Qualifier, could see them place well on the big night as well. The Broken Hill teams are ready to race as they have been competing well at their home meetings, especially at the massive St. Pats weekend just two weeks ago. Read the rest of this entry »

A massive weekend of racing entertainment in Broken Hill will culminate with the conduct of the annual, Magic Motorcycles – Sidecar Spectacular, to be held at the Broken Hill Speedway this Saturday night.

A star studded field has been engaged to contest the event, which includes the Adelaide based, 2009 Australian Sidecar Champions, Mark Mitchell and Tom Golding, who are keen to contest the Spectacular against Broken Hill’s home riders, Rick Howse and Adam Commons, who currently hold the “Aussie” Number three ranking, which followed their World Champions, Runners up trophy of 2008.

The contest between two of Australia’s top Sidecar teams will be worth travelling a long way to watch, especially with Howse and Commons having a home ground advantage over the Aussie Number Ones. Both teams will not give any concessions to the other and neither will mind swapping a little paint during the course of the action. Baring any mechanical failure it is expected that these two teams should be the major combatants in the night’s final. Read the rest of this entry »

The speedway season will draw to a close at Olympic Park this Saturday night with the running of the 33^rd Mildura Coca-Cola Sidecar Spectacular. This popular event is a must for Sidecar riders and enthusiasts alike as all of the top riders are always so keen to have their names included in the event,

The winner of the 2010 Keith “Curly” Carmes Trophy will be deserving, as the field is top class in the top group of ten. More than twenty sidecars will be on the program, but the Trophy will be decided amongst the ten “A” grade nominees.

Last week’s winners and runners up will start the meeting as firm favourites as Darrin Treloar and Justin Plaisted have five Australian Titles under their belt, but it could always be the local stars, and now Victorian seeded riders into the 2010 Australian Title at Newcastle, Byren Gates and Mick O’Loughlin, who, with their local knowledge could wrest the Curly Carmes Trophy away from the visitors.

Gates and O’Loughlin have been electrifying with their starts in recent meetings and are obviously grooming their style to suit the requirements of most tracks, and certainly the Newcastle venue for Easter, which will also auger well for them for this weekend too. Most local officials have not seen the Gater Racing Team make such impressive starts, as they have been during this season, which has only really heated up for sidecars over the last month, but something has been done to focus the attention of the team on their starts, which is working well. Read the rest of this entry »

A star studded line up has been engaged, with three teams who have won ten Australian Championships between them heading the impressive line up in the North West Funerals, 2010 Victorian Sidecar Championships to be held at Mildura’s Olympic Park Speedway this Saturday night.

Darrin Treloar / Justin Plaisted, Glenn and Nathan O’Brien and Scott Christopher / Trent Koppe are all previous wearers of the coveted blue sash as the National Champions and they will be joined by as strong a line up as has ever contested the State Championship in many years.

Byren Gates and Mick O’Loughlin started every heat and final last week like scalded cats, with amazing speed from the trap, but more importantly, with brilliant reaction time from Gates on the throttle and clutch. The Gater Racing Team has been improving their form as the season has progressed, as they plan on making an assault on the Australian Championship in Newcastle over the Easter weekend.

The other top chances to wave the Mildura banner are the team of Jason Bradshaw and Simon Cohrs, who are often brilliant around Olympic Park and could take some big scalps over the course of the meeting. They were very fast last week and like Gates, stood out from the crowd with some great racing. Apart from one blemish, when they turned themselves around after coming into the Pit turn too hot, they won all their heats well. Read the rest of this entry »

Some spectacular racing greeted fans at Olympic Park Speedway on Saturday night with the running of the 2010 Sidecar Shootout, which was won with great authority by local stars, Byren Gates and Mick O’Loughlin from Warren Monson and Deven Gates.

The double seven format proved to be most successful as more chances are given to, perhaps some of the lesser riders, but this meeting had intensity right from the start as all teams worked hard for enough points to get them to their own semi-final, which would then give them the chance of winning the Dudley Bradshaw Trophy.

Whilst Gates and O’Loughlin won all their heats and finished on a maximum score, it was the “Dad’s Army” team of Chris Holmes and Neale Hancock who finished with the second selection chance on eight points. The older gents have some very good machinery under them this season and are using it and their massive experience to be really at one with their racing. Total local domination in division one continued with Andy O’Rourke / Jason Mayes just “pipped” for third place points on count back from Clint Mayes / Jamie Knudsen, with each team on seven points. Read the rest of this entry »