SIDECARS FIGHT FOR LYND MEMORIAL
Former World Sidecar champions, Mick and Jesse Headland took out the second Derek Lynd Memorial Sidecar Trophy event at Mildura’s Olympic Park Speedway on Saturday night. The father and son combination led the point scores jointly with current Australian Champions, Justin Plaisted and Sam Harrison, who dropped their only point to eight times Australian Champion, Darrin Treloar and Blake Cox, who finished just one points in arrears on thirteen points, which they shared with Adelaide’s Damian Niesche and Mitch Spear. Treloar / Cox had another wretched finish to an important meeting when a chain let go while the NSW pair were leading quite comfortably on the back straight in the final lap, which allowed the Headlands to go by on Treloar and take the Trophy win ahead of Plaisted / Harrison and Niesche / Spear. Treloar still had enough momentum to complete the journey, albeit finishing in fourth place, just as the pair had done in the 2015 Australian Sidecar Title at Alice Springs over the Easter weekend. A count back was required for riders to select their start positions for all four positions in the all important and very valuable Final, with the richest purse up for grabs in Australian Sidecar Speedway. Of the two teams who had finished on fourteen points, Plaisted got the nod ahead of Headland, as in heat five, where they met,Plaisted had finished ahead of Headland. Plaisted chose the inside, red gate position with Headland taking the blue, gate two. Treloar / Cox had the choice over Niesche / Spear as Treloar had completed his heats with four heat wins compared to Niesche’s three heat wins. Treloar selected gate three, which left the SA combo the remaining yellow, gate four position. Treloar, as he usually does, got away to an excellent start with Headland making good ground too on the inside of the aggressive Treloar. Plaisted missed the start completely and trailed Niesche for three laps. All riders thought that they were in with a chance and whilst no passing took place early, the pace was electrifying, with riders getting wonderful drive from the track conditions. Headland made a few attempts to take Treloar, as the pair went into the turns using a lot of the track, but Treloar was resilient, as always and was able to defend his line. Plaisted at this time was giving Niesche a good working over and finally moved into third position, but he was too far behind the leaders to assert his authority. Treloar rode a great line into turns three and four for the last time and it looked as though he would consolidate his position, but for a chain break halfway down the back straight, which left Treloar to wonder what might have been as Headland stormed past and into the lead and the reward of the huge purse which had been placed by Lynd on the Final. Just missing out on the final was 2009 Australian Champion, Mark Mitchell, who has always enjoyed riding Mildura since he won his Championship at the Olympic Park venue. The Lynd Final followed twenty excellent heat races where points were shared amongst the top group of riders engaged in the meeting where they rode on an excellent surface in front of a good crowd, who appreciated the racing. All riders in the “after racing” social event were full of praise for a track which gave consistent grip across the entire surface. Riders were able to ride close, knowing that there was safety in the amount of dirt available right across the track. As was predicted, a serious “middle” section of riders were all claiming points from each other with former local, Klae Hobbs / Jack Spear collecting eight points as did Chris Dess / Brenton Kerr, then back to Byren Gates / Mick O’Loughlin, who finished with seven points ahead of SA’s Tim Bichard / Anthony Schultz and Melbourne’s Mark Radford / Chris Walker. Next then was local father and son, Neale and George Hancock with five points then back to Aaron Silvy / Adam Pascoe who were one point further behind. Good form was shown by local reserve riders Nathan Cock / Kane McGlashan, who collected two points from their two rides while Brendan Johnson / Hannah Holmes were very tidy when they took their reserve allocation. One of the highlights of the night was the match racing between Deon Lynd himself, who pitted his skills against great friend and four times Australian Champions, Shepparton’s, Andrew Cleave with Dave Power. The Goulburn Valley pair has always been popular at Olympic Park, taking one of their Championships at Mildura. Both teams showed good speed and did enjoy their outings in the first half of the program. Lynd, Cleave and Power then retired to the VIP Lounge to enjoy some fellowship with their friends and a group of MMCC sponsors, who all enjoyed the racing and the opportunity to be in close touch with the former stars of Australian speedway and Long Track. Reserves races were held as support, as was a very entertaining Classic section, who thrilled the crowd, who especially enjoyed the noise of the Vincent racing sidecar, so well ridden by Broken Hill’s Rob Kemp / Peter Harvy. After the event Kemp told the gathered crowd that riding the Vincent had given him his biggest thrill in 47 years of racing. Sydney’s Greg Griffiths and son, Nathan McFadden, rode their 750cc Water cooled Suzuki two stroke machine against Simon Cohrs / Reece Farr and Chris Wakefield / Jason Pinnuck with Steve Radford / Blake Halls chiming in for a piece of the action. A good and enthusiastic crowd supported the riders, but also were warm in their praise for the Club for the changes made to Olympic Park over the recent winter months. Patrons were delighted with the toilet facilities, the new kiosk area and the new terracing in the old Pit area. Riders too, were delighted with the new Pit garages and completely sealed Pit area and especially with the new Pit area viewing platform which was well used during the night. Next event at Olympic Park will be the 2015 FIM Team Speedway Under 21 World Championship – Final which will be held on Saturday 31st October. The World Team Cup will be the culmination of an amazing five days of activities, which will include a Thursday night Practice, A Rider / Team Presentation Dinner at Coomealla on Friday, the Title event on the Saturday with a restful Family fun day and BBQ at Johnson’s Bend on the Sunday afternoon, with the Phil Crump International Trophy to be held on Monday 2nd November. Tickets are available for all activities for the week either through the MMCC Website www.milduramotorcycleclub.org.au , just follow the directions or at any time during business hours, Monday to Friday at the Setts Business Centre in 8th Street, Mildura.
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