QUEENSLAND TITLE WINNERS TAKE GOLD CUP

All photos courtesy Judy Mackay.

Story by Mark Neale.

Reigning Queensland Champions Tyler Moon and passenger Adam Lovell won the Sidecar Gold Cup final at Gillman Speedway, SA, Saturday March 11.

Former Australian Champion Mark Mitchell/Tony Carter were second ahead of first year team of Nate Headland/Jaxon Rayner and Aaron Silvy/Jaron Silvy.

The Sidecar Gold Cup was the feature event of the 100 year anniversary meeting at Gillman Speedway which was held over twenty heats, a semi final and a winner-take-all final. The event was was witnessed by a good size crowd on a brilliantly prepared track.

Seventeen riders nominated for the meeting, but by the time the tapes went up for the first race of the night a number of competitors had pulled out of proceedings during the day with New South Wales youngster Jake Treloar (passenger Eli Wright) and the entire Treloar racing team stuck on the side of the road near Wagga Wagga due to their tow vehicle breaking down.

South Australia’s Damien Niesche/Mitchell Spear “blew up” their bike up the week before in the Victorian Championship and were unable to carry out repairs in time. NSW team of Shane Hudson (Adam Constable) had a week off, Victorian Chris Walker/Eric Melton withdrew during the week and local rider Nathan Fleet/Cameron Diwell experienced engine problems during practice.

That reduced the field down to twelve, so some heats only had two or three bikes. (Very few had all four.)

Moon/Lovell from Townsville, who have been based in Adelaide over the last few months and have ridden in most of the major Sidecar nights at Gillman this season, were the favourites to take out the event and were untroubled throughout the twenty action packed heats to finish with a five ride,15 point maximum to sit at the top of the score chart. That meant they had first pick of the starting position for the all important four rider, four lap final.

First year team of Nate Headland/Jaxon Rayner continued with their brilliant form in their debut season at senior level finishing with 14 points (four wins and a second) from their five outings,only being beaten by Moon/Lovell in the opening heat of the night, to qualify directly through to the final. This result gave them second pick of starting position. After the youngsters’ first race where they finished second, they won their remaining four qualifying heats.

Former Australian champion Mark Mitchell/Tony Carter finished with 12 points (two wins and three seconds) to grab the third and final spot directly through to the final. They were beaten by the top two and the Sivys.

Father/son team of Aaron and Jaron Silvy (11 points-three wins and two thirds) rode the ex Mark Plaisted bike and grabbed the last spot in the final by winning the semi final ahead of Daniel Puddy/Byron Mordaunt (7 points), Josh Pascoe/Matt Crawford (9 points) and Shane Rudloff/Scott Morris (11 points-a win and four seconds), who were excluded from the semi.

STARTING POSITIONS FOR THE FINAL WERE

RED         1 Tyler Moon/Adam Lovell         (first pick)

BLUE       2 Nate Headland/Jaxon Rayner (second pick)

WHITE    3 Mark Mitchell/Tony Carter      (third pick)

YELLOW 4 Aaron Silvy/Jaron Silvy             Semi final winner

Moon/Lovell few out of the tapes when they went up, got into the first corner in the lead, and they were never really challenged as they took the win ahead Mitchell/Carter(second),Headland/Rayner(third) and the Silvys who failed to finish when they pulled out of the race coming into turn three after one lap.

The battle for the minor placings was entertaining with Headland/Rayner hugging the pole line and the experienced team of Mitchell/Carter(who actually ran into the back of the Headland/Rayner bike on the back straight on the opening lap. They composed themselves and rode out wide to round them up to take the runner up spot.

POINTS AFTER THE TWENTY HEATS WERE

Tyler Moon/Adam Lovell(QLD)    15 PTS Maximum.

Nate Headland/Jaxon Rayner      14

Mark Mitchell/Tony Carter          12

Aaron Silvy/Jaron Sillvy                 11

Shane Rudloff/Scott Morris          11

Josh Pascoe/Matt Crawford            9

Daniel Puddy/Byron Mordaunt       7

Kane Golding/Isaac Amos                7

Adam Pascoe/Axel Brereton            6

Willy Walker/Jarrod Nash                6

Dean Hobbs/Daniel Low                   5

Tim Bichard/Seth Pascoe                  4

Nathan Fleet/Cameron Diwell         0 DID NOT RIDE

The legend from the West Dennis Nash, who is a five times Australian and nine times Western Australian Champion, his son Darren ,who recently won his third Western Australian Sidecar Championship), made the long trip across the Nullarbour for the event.

Broken Hill charger Rob Kemp and local crowd favourite Ronny Parker competed in a number of spirited demonstrations on sweet sounding old Vincent outfits which bought music to the ears of the older generation who were in attendance. There were additional classic bikes on display and old time riders (which included former dual SA Champ and former teams champion Jim Irwin) were chatting to the spectators who had access to the pits prior to the start of the meeting and were able to view some of the classic machinery from years gone by which were on display.