CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED
NOW CLOSING JANUARY 24

Supp Regs for the 2012 King of the Murray Stadium Cross series can be found here: Stadium Cross Supp Regs 2012 – Series.

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.

CLOSING DATE FOR ENTRIES HAS BEEN EXTENDED
NOW CLOSING JANUARY 24

Supp Regs for the 2012 King of the Murray Stadium Cross series can be found here: Stadium Cross Supp Regs 2012 – Series.

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.

Dates/Info are correct at time of publishing, but patrons are reminded that they are subject to confirmation and may alter at the Club’s discretion.MMCC Competition Calendar, Nov 2011doc

The high flying motorcross bikes are back at Olympic Park this Saturday night as the first of the Arena Motorcross events takes shape for the new competition season.

The spectacular event, which starts in the daylight, at 6:00pm and goes into the night under the new lights at the Mildura venue will thrill spectators as the riders battle each othet over the jumps, berms and whoops of the circuit.

Five strong classes of competition will be held, with the juniors on the 65cc machines, leading on to the 85 cc division plus the junior 125cc, 2 stroke and 250cc, 4 stroke machines holding sway until the senior riders come out to play on their “Lites” and “Open” class machines.

Riders to watch for would be, probably the best credentialed rider on the program, Josh Spanos from the Riverland. Spanos has been a regular in the top 40 Australian motorcross riders in the country over the past few years as he has ridden the regular rounds of the very hotly contested Australian MX Championships as a core group rider. Josh has been consistent in that heafty competition, which often includes some International MX Stars, including the top guys from around Australia.

Last year, too, Josh was included in the ever present list of riders in the International SuperX events which also travelled to stadiums all around Australia. The great Australian World MX and SX champion, Chad Reed, was also on the same start line as Spanos in those events.

Lined up against Spanos will be the likes of James Bate in the “lite” division and other local Josh Murtagh in the “open” class. These boys are gaining much experience at the new look layout of the Olympic Park circuit so will be right on the tail of Spanos, which will provide a good race spectacle during the evening.

This meeting will be a prelude to a three round series of Arena Motorcross which will be held in January, February and culminate with the regular Easter Saturday meeting under lights in April.

Gates will open to the public at 4:30pm, with Practice set to take place between 4:45 and 5:30pm. Racing will commence at 6:00pm using the daylight and then will go on into the night as is standard procedure.

A full catering service will be available and patrons are reminded that there must be No BYO by law.

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.

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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.