Bike speedway will kick off with a great ”first up” program at Mildura’s Olympic Park Speedway this Saturday night, where the action will be hot for Solos, Sidecars, Quads and Classic Sidecars.

Excellent entries have been received for the program, which will see the Senior meeting get under way with racing scheduled to start at 7:30 pm.

A strong field of Sidecars will face the “tapes” with some regular stalwarts, including the successful Byren Gates / Mick O’Loughlin combination, the “revamped and redesigned Dad’s Army” team of Chris Holmes and Neale Hancock, Wazza Monsoon / Deven Gates, former Australian Sidecar Champs, Mark Mitchell / Tom Golding and Andrew O’Rourke / Jason Mayes completing the “old guard”.

New combinations this season will be former Victorian Champ, Jason Bradshaw, now with Steve Behsmann along side and Clint Mayes now with Andrew Summerhayes swinging. The Bradshaw team has altered, as former passenger, Simon Cohrs, now has a machine of his own and will handle the throttle on that bike, while his brother Mark, will do the passenger duties. Team Cohrs will be worth watching right from the outset, as the skills learned by Simon while swinging for Fudz, will be transferred straight to his expertise on the throttle on his own machine. Historically, many of the best ever riders of Sidecars have done an “apprenticeship” as passengers before taking over the riding duties, with the great John Gates being one who comes to mind along with Bradshaw himself. Mildura Club is excited about new entrants to the Sidecar division which can only boost the sport at Olympic Park.

Joining the list is regular Melbourne riders Mark Radford and Steven Stagg, along with Broken Hill’s Rick Stephens and Dean Hobbs, who will make the sidecar action great to watch.

Solo action will be in two grades, with the top group consisting of returning star, Justin Sedgmen, with brother Ryan, Tom Hedley, Ben Turner from Adelaide and Brenton Barnfield, who will go well in the “A” grade section.

The younger Sedgmen has come back from the UK after a most successful season with his Premier League team, Birmingham, where he scored well and improved his average over the year. Justin also filled in at Elite League, Swindon on a number of occasions, where he rode well and is highly regarded. Sunraysia folk will be keen to see which areas Justin has improved in his set of skills as he will no doubt be focused on a spot in the 2011 Australian Solo Titles later in the season.

“B” grade solos with an even group of lads which includes, Brock Gates, Adam Briggs, and youngsters, Luke Mitchell, Robert Medson and Kane Turner all trying their luck at Olympic Park. Most of these youngsters are having their first crack at senior racing, although they have already done many laps of practice or on their smaller 350cc machines as Juniors.

Quad action will be fast and furious as all competitors are learning the craft of machine “set up” for the tight Olympic Park turns. It has been interesting to watch the development of the Quad

racer’s machines as they guys learn more about the vagaries of setting up their machines to turn left. Two generations of the Mills family will contest the night, with the middle generation out of action temporarily.

Classic Sidecars will also be featured with Roly Paver / Rex Byrne being taken on by the next generation of Tim Byrne and Rod Gebhart and Neil Murtagh / Nick O’Brien getting a sponsored ride from Bryan Gathercole on his Classic Honda.

Gates will open as usual at 5:30 pm, with Senior Practice scheduled from 6:00pm. A Junior program will follow and the Senior meeting will get under way at 7:30 pm sharp.

Full catering is available at Olympic Park and the Club advises that there must be No BYO by law at the venue due to licensing requirements.

Written by Brendan Gledhill.

Download the Press Release: PRE – Opening Meeting 201110 (SScQ and Classic)