SIDECAR TITLE HAT TRICK TO MARK PLAISTED AND BEN PITT

By Graeme Sinden.

Those spectators who were lucky enough to be at Perth’s Pinjar Park Motorcycle Speedway, and those at home watching all the action on Front Row Screens live stream coverage, were treated to the best speedway Sidecar event ever held at the purpose-built motorcycle speedway circuit in Neerabup in Perth’s northern suburbs.

Sixteen of the cream of Australia’s Sidecar teams raced hard and fast all evening long to eventually crown an Australian Speedway Sidecar Champion.

As it turns out it was not a new Champion, as the fabulous Mark Plaisted and his passenger Ben Pitt were the defending Champions.

This new Championship victory is their third championship win in a row and I have to say, a remarkable feat, given the quality of the classy line up of challengers, including the man they call the greatest of all time, Darrin Treloar who has claimed the Australian Championship on 11 previous occasions.

Darrin Treloar and his passenger Blake Cox chased Plaisted and Pitt hard during the exciting 4 lap A Main final to finish a very close, and deserving, second place.

The exciting pairing of Warren Monson and Andrew Summerhayes (Vic) put on a great show all night long to eventually finish third ,just edging out the very talented Shane Hudson and Adam Constable.

Hudson and Monson were the highest point scorers following the very tough heat race process but could not quite get the job done at the business end of the meeting.

Plaisted dropped some serious points during a heat race when he received a hard bump through turn two which threw the drive chain off the rear sprocket stranding him on the infield.

The upshot of that misfortune meant he had to qualify for the A Main by winning the sudden death B final, where only the winner advances further.

Their experience shone through and they remained cool under pressure to win the B final and then their next race, the A Final which sealed their hat trick of Australian titles.

While in Western Australia, Mark Plaisted and Benn Pitt competed in and won the ‘King of Pinjar’ event, the Blue Ribbon, ‘Jeff Gittus Memorial’ event and the all important Aussie title.

Of the Western Australian competitors, State Champions, Darren Nash and Ash Shield, coming off a big crash and still recovering from injuries, battled hard all night and just missed the B Final by a very narrow number of points.

Unfortunately Darren and Ash are now retiring from speedway competition to concentrate on Sidecar road racing and hopefully defend their State Championship status in this discipline.

The other West Aussie team who made it through Saturday night’s racing to qualify into the Championship night were Josh and Brayden Wells. Luck eluded them when first Brayden (passenger) fell from the bike in a scary incident and then they damaged the bike’s gearbox later in the evening.

The evergreen Jeff Bishop and his son Daniel were selected as a reserve for Sunday’s Championship night and looked impressive in their outings.

It was a night of Sidecar racing straight off the top shelf and was a huge success for the board and big team of volunteers at the Speedway Motorcycle Club of WA.

Congratulations to all concerned and very well done Mark Plaisted and Benn Pitt for a brilliant display of Sidecar racing.