MARK PLAISTED/BEN PITT: SA SIDECAR TITLE RECORD BREAKERS

Feature photo by: Mark Neale…SA Sidecar Champions for 2025 – rider Mark Plaisted and passenger Ben Pitt.

Mark Plaisted and Bent Pitt broke a host of records when they successfully defended their Safe Fire Electrical sponsored South Australian Sidecar Championship at Gillman Speedway on Saturday night, February 22.

The victory made Plaisted the first rider to win four in a row in the championship’s 78 year history, while Pitt became the most successful passenger with six wins, and Plaisted/Pitt together the most successful combination, also with six wins. The only record Plaisted has yet to break is the most overall wins as a rider, which he now shares with Darrin Treloar, each with seven victories.

Although the final was ultimately straight forward, with Plaisted/Pitt leading all the way to defeat Trent Headland/Jaxon Rayner, Max Howse/Riley Commons and Tyler Moon/Adam Lovell, the result was not a foregone conclusion during the heats.

After 12 heats Plaisted/Pitt and Headland/Rayner were unbeaten on nine (9 ) points with Moon/Lovell on eight (8), after a loss to Headland/Rayner in heat three, but the current Queensland Champions upset the form guide with an all-the-way win over Plaisted/Pitt in heat 13.

And Plaisted/Pitt’s title defence looked further in jeopardy when they met Headland/Rayner in heat 17. Plaisted/Pitt, from gate one, took the early lead but Headland/Rayner got under them in turn two on the second lap and eked out a small lead. It looked like race over, given Plaisted could not catch Moon in his previous ride, but Plaisted/Pitt showed why they are the most successful team in the event’s history by regaining the lead with an inside pass through turns three/four on the third lap.

Plaisted’s win provided a referee’s nightmare with Plaisted/Pitt, Headland/Rayner and Moon/Lovell all tied on 14 points and no way of separating them by a countback. They had to draw lots for choice of gates in the final, and lady luck fell Plaisted’s way when he won first choice and he took red, with Headland in blue and Moon in white, leaving yellow for the winner of the last chance semi-final.

The semi-final line-up was Brandon Warke/Mitchell Firth (red), Max Howse/Riley Commons (blue), Thomas Adams/Campbell Stafford (white), who all scored 11 points, and Queensland #2 Stuart Firth/Jason Martin (yellow) on 8 points. Firth scored his 8 points in just four rides, after his bike would not start in his first ride. Adams/Stafford and Firth/Martin had an exciting dice in the semi, but it was only for second place as Howse/Commons led all the way. After a couple of laps side-by-side, Firth got under Adams on the last lap to take second, with Adams third and Warke fourth.

In the final, Plaisted made the start but there was contact through turns one/two, Plaisted’s bike reared up, and Headland had to cut across the infield to avoid an accident, which meant a restart. In the restart, after the jockeying for places through the first two turns, Plaisted/Pitt led all the way for a comfortable victory. Headland/Rayner chased hard but couldn’t catch them, while Howse/Commons got the better of Moon/Lovell for third place, one place short of equalling their famous fathers, Rick Howse and Adam Commons, who finished second in 2006.

In the earlier racing the best of the heat races was actually amongst three of the riders at the bottom end of the scorecard, when Willy Walker/Liam Sherwood led Brian Silvy/Glen Zaworski and Nathan Fleet/Jason Mordaunt home in heat 18. The three were wheel-to-wheel throughout the race with Fleet constantly trying to get under Silvy but unable to do so because he would have run into the back of Walker.

In the support races, Dale Knights, from 40 metres, led home Con Twist (20), Greg Laanekorb (10) and Kristy Schultz (0) in each of the Flat Track Solo handicap races, and Riley Stout won the 125cc Solo final ahead of Ryleigh McGregor, Jett Plaisted and Cooper Karpinski after Stout and McGregor shared the heats with two wins each.

Unfortunately the night started in alarming fashion with a shocking looking accident in heat two of the sidecar championship, when Josh Pascoe’s bike lifted on the back straight and passenger Greg Black fell from the bike into the path of the following bikes. Wayne Lethbridge threw his bike sideways to try to avoid him as he was bouncing along the track but Black took the full brunt of the sidecar fairing. Lethbridge then cartwheeled when he ran off the track and Black, Lethbridge and his passenger Grantley Simounds were all injured. The resulting medical treatment meant the race was not rerun until 8.45pm (after a 7.30pm meeting start), reports are the injuries were nowhere as bad as first feared. Greg Black was understandably the most seriously injured. He suffered a dislocated hip, which has been put back into place, a broken arm and two broken ribs but should be home tomorrow (Monday), while Lethbridge and Simounds suffered concussion and broken ribs and are already home in Port Pirie.