The current World Speedway Sidecar Champion, Mick Headland, from Murray Bridge, will head up a great group of sidecars to contest the 2010 Coca-Cola, Sidecar Spectacular at Mildura’s Olympic Park on Sunday night, 25th April.

Headland came away from the recent Australian Championships held at Newcastle, with a hard earned fourth place, even though he was riding with his youngest son, Jesse, in place of his injured regular passenger, Paul Waters, who was badly injured in a track accident in New Zealand back in January of this year.

Headland is a class act in any company, but he will not get many things his own way this weekend as the “hot shots” from that Australian Title, Broken Hill’s, Rick Howse and Adam Commons, will be keen to show that their Newcastle form, where they finished in second place, was not any flash in the pan. The Broken Hill pair have been slick all year and have just selected those meetings which have given them their best Title opportunity training as the important ones for the season.

Howse and Commons were the fastest team for the entire Newcastle meeting, winning all five of their heat rides on Championship night and just failing to win the major prize in the cut throat final. Gate selection was possibly just slightly wrong for the Broken Hill combo, but all present could understand that in choosing the inside gate position, it did give some insurance over the five times Champion, Darrin Treloar for Howse, but they did not expect to see the wonderful start that was gained by the eventual winners, Jason Aldridge and Cal Campbell.

Howse and Commons can always know that they were the best riders on the night, but that they could not make up for the start which the Queensland pair took to the major prize.

The action wont be just between these two International teams as it is the Keith “Curley” Carmes Trophy which is up for the winners and there are plenty of locally based riders who will be looking to get their names inscribed on the most prestigious trophy in the Mildura Club’s speedway cabinet.

Locals will be lead by the sixth place getters in the Aussie final in Byren Gates and Mick O’Loughlin, who have been riding all season in scintillating form. Speedway pundits have said that Gates and O’Loughlin have never started as quick as they have been this year. They are very settled as a team and their form at Newcastle was worthy of them being the Victorian representatives at the meeting and their sixth place puts them in the top riders in the country.

Other locals in Warren Monson and Deven Gates, Jason Bradshaw and Simon Cohrs, as well as Clint Mayes / Danny Mayes, Andrew O’Rourke and Jason Mayes and Dad’s Army, Chris Holmes and Neale Hancock will ensure that the top of the points stack will always be under challenge.

We throw in regular visitors in Mark Radford and Steven Stagg and Simon Hartley / Nathan Chisholm, who along with Monson / Gates and O’Rourke / Mayes, will have gained enormously from their collective experiences at Newcastle in the National Title meeting. Gaining from the Newcastle experience too is Adelaide’s Daniel Puddy and Matt Morgan, who would be expected to give the top teams a real run for their money.

All four teams will be keen to show their fans that this season has been a growth season for them and that the final meeting for the year is the time and place to show the spoils of a fruitful campaign.

There is no doubt that the Championship meeting was difficult for many, with tracks issues dominating the weekend, bit it will be great for all riders top be on a real speedway track, which is groomed for the best outcome for all teams in the meeting.

We will see plenty of dirt fly and no doubt, some paint will be swapped, such is the nature of strong Sidecar competition.

This will be a meeting, worthy of the final meeting for the year, even though it is being held some six or seven weeks after its scheduled date. The first attempt of conducting this event was back in March and the annual Sidecar Spectacular is always the final event for the Mildura speedway calendar. Patrons are overjoyed to still have the opportunity to see, what will probably still be the best Sidecar event in the country for the year, with indications that there will once again, be many visitors coming to Mildura to see the best in the business going around and are overjoyed that the Mildura Club chose to only postpone the “Speccy” to later in the season.

Support events will again be from the Classic Sidecar division, which is getting stronger by the meeting. Many riders have dusted off their old machinery and have then dusted themselves to have another try at the sport which is so exciting for many, much to the enjoyment of those of us who watch and continue to be amazed at the daring of those early riders. Local “Oldies”, Roly Paver and Rex Byrne, enjoy their competition more now than they probably did in yesteryear, if the smiles on their faces are anything to go by.

It is fitting too, that we pay tribute to our Anzacs as well as our founding racing Club members on such an auspicious night as Anzac night. The meeting will commence with a small Anzac ceremony prior to any racing. The Club asks all patrons to join us in the Anzac commemoration and advises that the Club will be making a donation to the RSL Benevolent Fund to mark the occasion.

Some years ago, Olympic Park Speedway was donated to a local Ex-Serviceman’s Committee for use as the fund raising venue to conduct a wonderful variety concert, when funds were being raised to build a memorial to recent past conflicts, including the Vietnam War.

The memorial was built on the Mildura Seventh Street lawns.

Patrons are reminded that gates will open at 5:30pm, with Junior racing to precede the main event. A full catering service is offered, as always, at Olympic Park and patrons are asked to comply with the “No BYO by law”, ruling, which is part of the Club’s catering arrangements.

Download the press release: PRE – 2010 Sidecar Spectacular 250410