A dominant Team Australia led from the second heat of the International Sidecar Team Challenge at Mildura’s Olympic Park Speedway last Wednesday night, improving their score with every heat. A large crowd for a mid-week meeting enjoyed the teams format, which is a major change for Australian speedway fans.

In scoring 56 points, the Team Australia was most consistent with newly crowned, World Champions, Darrin Treloar / Jesse Headland, former dual World Champions, Mick Headland / Paul Waters and former Australian Champions, Mark Mitchell / Tom Golding all completing maximum 15 point scores from their five rides each. The fourth members of the team, Chris Pascoe / Simon Cohrs, completed the night with eleven points to give Team Australia a historic win in the Challenge.

A closely fought contest between Team Mildura and Team New Zealand, for the minor placing, saw both teams score 25 points and were not able to be separated. Best scores for Team New Zealand were life partners, Andrew Buchanan and Phillipa Burns with 10 points, who completed the night equal with Team Mildura’s top guns, Byren and Deven Gates, who also completed the night on 10 points.

Team New Zealand improved with each outing and Les Plummer / Cameron Bell scored next best for the Kiwis with 6 points, local “temporary” Kiwi, Dale Milner / Brock Gates, scored 5 points while Dave Gannon / Ray George scored 4 points, although they were most unlucky to have a bike problem while leading a late heat and were very stiff when they had machine problems on the line, when they were playing the “Joker” for their team. The Mildura crowd was most impressed with the speed of the Kiwis, who got faster as the night went on and would enjoy seeing them back at Olympic Park in the future.

Team Mildura was also well served by Clint Mayes / Andrew Summerhayes, who scored consistently and finished the night on 8 points. Unfortunately for Jason Bradshaw / Steve Behsmann, 3 points, the mechanical gremlins pestered them all night as their “kill switch” caused them problems in their first two heats, stopping their machine while leading on two occasions.

A couple of intense crashes occurred during the night, firstly to NZ Passenger, Phillipa Burns, who took a strong hit from another competitor, causing injury to her already injured right wrist and Chris Holmes / Neale Hancock took a big hit going into turn three, which saw the front end torn from the machine as it somersaulted away from the impact. Hancock was injured and taken for treatment, while Holmes hobbled away from the incident. None of the three competitors took any further part in the meeting and the two transgressing riders, who caused the carnage were excluded for their actions. Holmes / Hancock scored 4 points from just three completed rides.

Team England were depleted from the team originally intended, although it should be noted that the Australian replacements to the team scored better than their team mates.

A big accident occurred in heat 2, when Mick Cave / Matt Morgan came into turn one of the second lap; their sidecar wheel broke through the axle, sending both Cave and Morgan into the air. The race was stopped and unfortunately for the UK boys, their night was finished.

British team member Roy Spreadbury / Gareth Little, the only all England team, improved as the night went on and finished with 3 points. Spreadbury had indicated prior to the meeting that he had held Olympic Park in high esteem as a rider, even though he had never raced at the venue. He advised before the meeting that it was his intention to “retire” at the end of the night, saying “that he was riding for Team England” and riding at a track which had been on his “wish list” for many years. Mildura Club was delighted that Roy chose to announce his retirement at Mildura while a member of such an historic meeting at the track.

Team imports, Damian Niesche / Jack Spear, 6 points, top scored for the English team and Broken Hill’s Rick Stevens / Dean Hobbs scored 3 points in a good contribution.

The teams format was enjoyed by all spectators, with some suggesting that it was wonderful to be able to go to speedway and support a whole team, rather than just a favourite rider.

Mildura Club was delighted that so many fans came out to watch, as the mid –week conduct of the meeting would have made it difficult for so many working and school time families.

Next meeting at Olympic Park is the 2011 Victorian Solo Championship to be held on Saturday 3rd December. Sidecar support events will fill the Solo Title program.

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

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

Download the scoresheet: Vic Sidecar title 2010 Scoresheet

The night’s racing was clean and fast and the final could have been the final for the Aussie title. Mark Plaisted / Sam Harrison had some bad luck in their third heat when they destroyed a gear box and prevented them from seeing if they could go through the meeting with a clean sweep. Andrew O’Rourke /Jason Mayes blew a motor which put them out for the rest of the night also.

The O’Brien brothers haven’t lost their touch after coming out of retirement, though Glenn did say that they were on Tony Cox’s bike and it isn’t quite as fast as they would have liked. They are going back to Perth to build a new one of their own and come back next year in full force.

Darrin Treloar/Justin Plaisted dominated all night, dropping their only point to Qld pair Scott Christopher/Trent Koppe, while local duo, Byren Gates/Mick O’Loughlin were right up there and took second place. This should give them a berth in the Aussie Title in Newcastle at Easter as the highest ranked Victorian riders.

Final Placings for the Sidecar Shootout were:

1. Byren Gates – Mick O’Loughlin
2. Warren Monson – Deven Gates
3. Jason Bradshaw – Simon Cohrs
4. Andrew O’Rourke – Jason Mayes

Download the full scorechart: 2010 Sidecar Shootout & Quads

This chart gives a heat by heat picture of events as they occurred.

Note:

• Gate 1 is RED, gate 2 is BLUE, Gate 3 is WHITE, and gate 4 is YELLOW and gate 5 is GREEN.
• For finals, gate positions are chosen by the highest points scorer selecting a gate first etc.

Saturday night’s Mildura Speedway Masters saw a great all round performance from all participants, with Justin Sedgmen taking the major honours in the Solos with Jason Bradshaw and Simon Cohrs taking the chocolates in the Sidecar division. Troy Mills was the winner of the Quads Masters final from Lachy Mannes and Nathan Mills.

Byren Gates and Mick O’Loughlin dominated the Sidecar heats of the Masters, recording four great wins, but were always under challenge from the Bradshaw / Cohrs team and Ouyen’s Munro brothers, Scott and Kane, who have now garaged the Header and gone to the faster and more powerful option. The Munro’s riding has improved greatly and now that plenty of track time can be assured with the wheat harvest done, we are likely to see further improvement, as they are now mixing it with the top Mildura riders. Read the rest of this entry »

2010 Australian Solo Speedway Championship Final Results are:

1. Chris Holder
2. Troy Batchelor
3. Darcy Ward
4. Rory Schlein
5. Cory Gathercole
6. Tyron Proctor
7. Jason Doyle
8. Justin Sedgmen
9. Cameron Woodward
10. Sam Masters
11. Josh Auty
12. Alex Davies
13. Mark Lemon
14. Robert Ksiezak
15. Josh Grajczonek
16. James Holder
17. Joe Haines

Download the full scorecard: 2010 Aust Solo Title Scoresheets Final Scores

Final places for Round 3 at Newcastle were…

1. Chris Holder (NSW)
2. Cameron Woodward (VIC)
3. Darcy Ward (QLD)

To view the full scorecard please click the link below.

2010 Aust Solo Title Scoresheets – RD 3 Newcastle

Final places for Round 2 at Mildura Olympic Park Speedway were…

1. Troy Batchelor (QLD)
2. Chris Holder (NSW)
3. Darcy Ward (QLD)

Overall placings for the Championship are currently

1. 40 pts – Troy Batchelor (QLD)
2. 36 pts – Chris Holder (NSW)
3. 34 pts – Darcy Ward (QLD)
4. 32 pts – Rory Schlein (SA)
5. 28 pts – Ty Proctor (VIC)

To view the full scorecard please click the link below.

2010 Aust Solo Title Scoresheets RD2 Mildura

Final places for Round 1 at Gilman Speedway were…

1. Troy Batchelor (QLD)
2. Chris Holder (NSW)
3. Darcy Ward (QLD)

To view the full scorecard please click the link below.

2010 Aust Solo Title Scoresheets RD1 Gilman