WOFFINDEN GESTURE LEAVES ITS MARK

All Photos courtesy of: Judy Mackay

Feature photo:  A meet up with Mildura’s greatest export product, the legendary Phil Crump. 

By: Brendon Gledhill

THREE times World Speedway Champion, Tai Woffinden, came to Mildura recently to ride in the 2023 GT Windscreens sponsored Phil Crump Classic and has left an indelible mark on Olympic Park patrons by, not only winning the meeting, but now has his name on every race/track and lap record for solo motorcycles.

                                       Tai Woffinden with the prize

In what could only be described as a master class, Woffinden won the “Dash for Cash” then took all before him during the heat races.

The affable young English rider, grew up in Australia due to his father having so much metal in his body from many speedway crashes.

The family saw fit to emigrate to Perth, WA, where the young Tai learned his craft, so much so, that Tai has won three world Individual senior titles. As a result of this and other achievements, a number of important accolades have endeared him to speedway fans everywhere.

The traditional “Dash for Cash” is held immediately prior to the Olympic Park’s night’s main programme and, whilst taking off as thirteenth in the line, he absolutely blitzed the field to win the $500 purse, put up by Exposed Signage and Aparrel and really set himself up for a great night.

                                Doing a victorious wheelstand

When presented with his prize after the Dash, Woffinden then announced that he would later put the prize money on the bar at the Mildura clubrooms.

He made this wonderful gesture because he knew and understood what an amazing effort club members had put in, firstly protecting the assets of the club prior to the flood waters arriving, then club members backed up with a huge post flood clean .

It was a re-instatement of the club from an operational standpoint in getting the track and grounds ready for a top night of speedway much earlier than first thought.

Woffinden clearly won his first heat but then came out in his second round and put in a remarkable ride, smashing the race record as well as the lap record in the same race.

Tai was on his way to a scintillating night, especially as he had never previously ridden the Olympic Park circuit as a senior rider.

Patrons were delighted that the tear-away Englishman was prepared to ride so hard and fast, which just demonstrated to many the real quality and skill of the triple World Champion.