Treloar dominates

TRELOAR WINS BRADSHAW MEMORIAL

Once again, the GOAT of Australian Sidecar Speedway, Darrin Treloar / Blake Cox, dominated the Olympic Park circuit on Saturday night to win the Dudley Bradshaw Memorial Trophyahead of Warren Monson / Andrew Summerhayes, Mick Headland / Brenton Kerr and Byren Gates / Mick O’Loughlin, in what was a wonderful Final to the Gardenland Landscape Supplies, Mildura Sidecar Shootout event.

Treloar was in top form once more, heading into the Australian Championship to be held in a fortnight at Mildura over the Anzac weekend. The Sydney based team travelled all day to race at Mildura and then returned immediately after for the home journey. He was able to drive positively from every start gate and dominated each heat race and then was superlative in the Bradshaw Final winning the start ahead of Monson, Headland and Gates, with all riders maintaining their positions for the entire journey.

Monson and Summerhayes are hoping that all their “bad luck” has now deserted them after their last two outings have seen them only scoring ten points from four of their five outings. Monson tipped his machine over in his final heat when he seemed to oversteer slightly coming into turn one which may have caused the Sidecar front to catch in the track and tipped him over. A Red light stopped the race and Monson laid on the track until attended by First Aid staff. Thankfully for Monson, he was able to stand and walk from the track unaided and through an exclusion for causing the Race stoppage, he was not able to collect any more points, although he was fine to start in the next two events for the team.

The popular Mildura team only managed to get into the “B”Final with third pick after their ten point collect after Queensland’s Cohen was tipped out of the main event on a count back from locals, Gates / O’Loughlin, to take the first selection in the “B”. The Hunter Valley, elder team of Grant Bond / Glenn Cox, were second selection with eleven points while their sons, Hayden Bond / Brady Cox were last into the “B” on nine points.

The focus for Monson changed at the start of the minor final as he drove superbly from the start and moved away for the field to claim the last place in the Bradshaw final.

Heat races had been exciting all the way through with some excellent passing manoeuvres right from the start of the night. Even during heat two, which had seen young Howse, Treloar, Cohen and the elder Bondy at the start, with no less than fourchanges in position from second place onwards. Treloar had made the start, but the rest did not settle until lap four was nearly complete. Patrons were gracious in their support for some great racing so early in the night on a track which provided wonderful opportunities for riders to show their skills.

Thankfully, the meeting was run with riders showing great respect for each other knowing that the next outing at Mildura for them all is the KW Earthmoving & Concreting, Australian Title, so they all want to be in a fit condition to race and riding a machine which has not been broken just a fortnight ahead of the major event for the year.

There were no tragic stories to come from the event, even though some teams would have preferred a better end resultleading into the Australian Title.

The first visit for the two Bond / Cox combinations gave them a great “hit out” ready for the task in a Fortnight. There is plenty of competition from the two teams as the sons are keen to take over the mantle which has been held by their Dads for some time. Grant Bond, in particular, is still the fastest rider riding around the “pole” line as his throttle control is near to perfect. Passenger, Glenn Cox has an amazing skill in keeping the Bond machine down on the pole line, so proving that the fastest way around is always the “shortest” way.

The return of the Queenslanders, Cohen / Headland and Bottrell / Risstrom, was again successful for Cohen, who completed his work with an overall 5^th place, however, for Bottrell his job, whilst being better than his previous visit, was still short by his lofty standards as he finished in 8^th place.Local stars, and Club President, Neale Hancock / Tubs Johnson were next in line with six points but would have hoped to do better.

For the KW Earthmoving & Concreting, 2021 Australian Title “Qualifying meeting” to be held on Friday 23^rd April, the teams will need to finish well to be in the top six teams on the score chart as only six teams are required to add to the ten teams who have been “seeded” directly into the Title Final on Saturday 24^th April. Two teams from each Sidecar State have been seeded into the Championship by The Track Racing Commission of Motorcycling Australia, so it is vital that teams collect “good” points for the whole way of the Qualifying meeting.

Tickets for the 2021 Australian Championship weekend can be pre-purchased on the Mildura Club website at milduramotorcycleclub.org.au

Please follow the prompts and print your individual receipt or attach it to your phone to enable you to collect you tickets at the Olympic Park Stadium, Main Gate, in the line marked

“Pre – Purchase Tickets,” as distinct from the two lanes which will be in operation for

CASH customers and the other line, which will be for EFTPOS transactions.

Olympic Park gates will open at 4:00pm on both Friday 23^rdand Saturday 24^th April and patrons are reminded that Covid 19 compliance will still be necessary, so please follow the instructions of the Club’s Covid Marshals. The Club has been delighted with the cooperation received from our very loyal spectators and asks that the same discipline applies for our last meetings for the season.

The 2021 Australian Sidecar Title will be the seventh time that the Mildura Motor Cycle Club has hosted the Championshipwith the only dual winners being the great Andrew Cleave and Dave Power, winning Titles in both 1996 and again in 2003.Mark Mitchell could win for a second time as could Darrin Treloar and Blake Cox.