Masters – A Big Hit
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.
Centenarians, Chris Holmes and Neale Hancock, are becoming very familiar with their new and faster machinery and are demonstrating their experience with some solid performances, making the top final, which delighted the whole team.
Like Gates / O’Loughlin. Justin Sedgmen was unbeaten in the heats events, but was able to remain unbeaten after the Masters final, which he won in fine style. Second to the Merbein youngster, was Albury’s Mark Jones, who has reinvigorated his speedway interest and is talking to some English teams, about the possibilities of resuming his International career. Jones has had a couple of season’s break, to secure his trade, but is now keen to follow a family dream.
Third in the solo event was the evergreen Jason Stewart, who gives many years to some of the young riders, but who always competes to his best standard. Jason, along with Justin Sedgmen, will travel to Tamworth in two weeks time to contest the 2010 Australian Long Track Championships, which are held on much larger circuits than Olympic Park and also conducted at much higher speeds than are achieved at Mildura. Stewart, in particular, is a great exponent of the longer version of speedway and thinks nothing of throwing the machine sideways into the turns, sliding the bike at well over 100kph, which is the requirement of the long track discipline.
Mildura speedway patrons were delighted to see such a full program for the Masters, which, for many included a top field of Sidecars, which always provide such a show. Whilst Mildura has conducted the last three meetings associated with Australian Solo Championships, Olympic Park fans have been starved of hot Sidecar racing, but that returned with a vengeance on Saturday night, especially when Broken Hill pair, Rick Stephens and Dean Hobbs, backed their machine into the Olympic Park fence, right at the entry of turn one for Sidecars. A solid thud resulted and thankfully, after a short interlude, for the guys to catch their breath, both rider and passenger were up and about, suffering no injuries, for which we are all pleased.
King of the kids on Saturday night was Mildura star, Mark Lemon, who brought down a number of his special “Mark Lemon Testimionial†posters, from his last season’s Testimonial meeting, held so successfully at the Somerset speedway track. Lemon’s popularity as a rider is well known, but the lovely gesture to bring down his posters and spend so much time signing autographs for the kids attending the Masters meeting was well appreciated by patrons and Club Officials alike.
Lemon is progressing well with his back injury and has taken advantage of a couple of extra weeks in the warmth of Mildura rather than go back to the still chilly England to repair his body. Lemon will return to the UK later this week to resume as the number one man at the Newcastle speedway.
Saturday night also heard the announcement that the Victorian Sidecar title, to be held at Olympic Park on S competitors. The current Australian Champions will be joined by two other multi Australian Champ teams as well as State Champions, too numerous to mention and even International riders, from England, making up the strongest Victorian Sidecar field for many years. A massive night of competition is expected with the major prize being a seeded place into the 2010 Australian final.
Speedway fans will see the emphasis on racing turn from the Solo boys, most of whom are heading back to a very cold England to resume their professional careers, to the Sidecar way of going over the next few meetings, with the first of the big Sidecar meets being the Sidecar Shootout, to be held on Saturday 20th February. A huge and quality field has already been booked for the Shootout, so Sunraysia fans will be in for some treats on three wheels in the very near future.
Next racing at Mildura will be, next Saturday night, 30th January with the popular Arena Motorcross on Olympic Park’s permanently lit ArenaX venue, right next to the speedway facility. Entries are open until the day of competition, prior to the commencement of scrutineering and will be for all competitive classes of competition. The ArenaX will kick off, with scrutineering from 3:00pm, with racing set to start around 5:30 pm.
Next speedway will be a Karts and Quads special on Saturday 13th February with the bikes to follow on the next week with the Sidecar Shootout on Saturday 20th February.
Download the press release: POST – Mildura Masters, Solo, S’car and Quads, 250110