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.