TEAMS WILL EXCITE AT OLYMPIC PARK

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TEAMS WILL EXCITE AT OLYMPIC PARK

Speedway teams racing will return to Mildura’s Olympic Park Speedway this Saturday night with the conduct of the MacU Kitchens – 2016 Mildura versus Australia Select Solo Test Match.

Local star, Justin Sedgmen will Captain the Mildura team whilst 10 times Australian Champion, Leigh Adams, will be the Mildura Team Manager.

Victorian Champion, Ty Proctor will be the skipper of the Australia Select Team and current Team Speedway Australia, manager, Mark Lemon, will manage the Australia Select team. Both Adams and Lemon will be looking for bragging rights at meetings end, so watch for hard bargains to be driven trackside as each ex International will be using all their guile and experience from their days racing all over UK and Europe to gather an advantage.

Teams racing is rare in Australia as seven riders are required for each team, which must have “Heat leaders” at position one, three and five on the team and then have support riders at two, four, six and seven, who can back up their Heat leader, by scoring either second or third place following their team buddy or who can score effectively on their own, should some malady occur with their team mate.

The Mildura team still has good depth, even though local Star and former International, Cam Woodward, will not ride due to an injury sustained a fortnight ago in Adelaide. Woodward would have given the Mildura team the benefit of his vast experience, but the selectors have dug deep and some young men, embarking on their new speedway careers, will get the chance to don the Race jacket of Mildura proudly.

Besides Sedgmen, riding at number one, Jaimon Lidsey will be at number two and ride as Sedgmen’s foil. Second Heat leader is Jordan Stewart, riding at three, with his partner and good mate, Cooper Riordan at number four, while the powerful number five position is being filled by Brodie Waters, who will have both newcomer, Oliver Hamilton at six and the experienced, Chris Ferguson at number seven. These two Reserve riders can have a massive impact on the score line if they can gain an ascendency over the Australia Select Reserve pair.

In the team representing Australia Select, Manager, Mark Lemon will have the skill and speed of Captain, Ty Proctor at one with SA’s Rob Medson riding in the two spot. The young Queenslander, Josh Coyne, will be the second Heat Leader at number three, with his mate being young SA lad, Dakota Ballantyne, riding at number four. Third Heat leader is the very quick NSW rider, Josh Pickering and he will have young Victorian, Jack Morrison at number six with SA’s Mitch Grech at number seven.

Experienced speedway fans will note the evenness of the card for each team, with some wonderful contests being promised, especially those between Sedgmen and Proctor, with the interest always being, who can do best out of Lidsey or Medson, as each team strives for a points advantage from each heat.

Stewart and Coyne will again be a good match up with more interest being created by either Riordan, for Mildura or Ballantyne for the Aussies in their matched events, or on those occasions where Stewart has Waters as a partner and Coyne has Pickering. This could be one of the toughest contests as all four of Stewart, Waters and Coyne with Pickering will a battle worth watching, as they all wish to continue their good form from the Phil Crump Trophy meeting.

Again, Waters and Pickering will have a ding dong at position five and the Reserves programmed riders will all be well contested with Hamilton and Ferguson looking for solid points against Morrison and Grech. The other combination which could really bring out “team riding” aspects, which our patrons will be delighted to see will be when Sedgmen and Proctor will be working overtime to get their number threes over the line in a point scoring position.

Heat fifteen is an unprogrammed heat, with the selection of riders being entirely the duty of each of the Team Managers. After Heat fourteen, the Managers will select, probably their best two scorers for the night and hope that they can do the job for their team.

A coin toss is used to decide the starting positions prior to Heat one when the Captain will select either Gates one and three or gates two and four, for the first heat. Each team will then alternate gates 1 & 3 or 2 & 4 for the first fourteen heats. After the selection of riders for the final heat, the Team Captains will again conduct a toss for the start gate selection for the final heat.

Track conditions, as the meeting progresses and the ability of some riders to ride a wide or a tight line are always taken into account with the gate selection process, which becomes just another important variable in the Team racing equation.

A small field of Sidecars will ride as support to the MacU Kitchens Solo Test Match and after the Teams part of the meeting there will be another six individual events using all of the Teams solo riders, with them riding against each other in a knockout situation, to see who is the best rider out of both teams on the night in a four rider final.

Olympic Park has not been affected by any floodwaters, so our regular patrons should be able to park in their normal position. Patrons are reminded that Olympic Park gates will open at 5:00pm, with a small junior meeting to get underway from around 6:00pm. Senior racing will begin at 7:30pm, so patrons are reminded that the match racing will start right with the first event of the night, so plan to be early.

Excellent Grandstand accommodation is available free of charge and patrons are reminded that there must be NO BYO by law

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