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.