PLAISTED / PITT WIN AUSTRALIAN SIDECAR CHAMPIONSHIP

Mark Plaisted and passenger Ben Pitt celebrate their 2022 Australian Sidecar Championship victory at SA’s Gillman Speedway. (All Photos: by Judy Mackay)

BY MARK NEALE

Local crowd favourite Mark Plaisted and Mildura based passenger Ben Pitt won their second successive Australian Sidecar Championship at Gillman Speedway Sunday, April 17, in front of a good size crowd

On a night that was full of action, drama, close wheel to wheel racing, controversial refereeing decisions, spectacular crashes and even some light drizzle on a couple of occasions, Plaisted/Pitt became the fourth different winner of the five times that Gillman have staged the event.

Eleven times champion Darrin Treloar/Blake Cox were second with Murray Bridge/Mildura combination of Mick Headland/Brenton Kerr (third) and Victorian Team of Warren Monson/ Andrew Summerhayes(fourth).

The top four point scorers after the twenty qualifying heats actually made it through to the final and they were the same four teams who battled out the final twelve months ago at Mildura.

The final was full of drama with the starting line-up being Treloar/Cox (Red) 14 points, Plaisted/Pitt (Blue) 14 points ,Headlland/Kerr (white) 12 points and semi final winner Warren Monson/Andrew Summerhayes (yellow) 11 points who beat Shane Hudson/Adam Constable (second), Brodie Cohen/Jesse Headland (third) and Stuart Firth/Tim Green (fourth) just to make final.

Treloar appeared to get away the best from the tapes and lead into the first turn but Plaisted and Headland appeared to have more speed coming out of turn two and passed him leaving Treloar into third place, while Headland and Plaisted increased their lead.

Monson was close behind in fourth place and spun infield coming into turn three. Plaisted was still holding down the lead followed by Headland and Treloar who was stuck in third.

Headland appeared to drift wide coming out of turn two on the final lap and crashed into the air fence leaving Plaisted/Pitt to claim back-to-back wins, much to the delight of the large crowd, ahead of Darrin Treloar/Blake Cox placed second as the only two to finish the race.

After the twenty action packed heats Treloar/ Cox and Plaisted/Pitt sat in the top two spots of the score chart with 14 points apiece made up by four wins and a second apiece. Treloar/Cox were beaten by Shane Hudson/ Adam Constable in heat 11,while they in turn defeated Plaisted/Pitt in heat 19 to have first pick of the all important starting gate for the final which saw them take the inside red starting gate. Plaisted took the blue gate position two.

Murray Bridge/Mildura combination of Mick Headland/Brenton Kerr scored 12 points (three wins, a second and a third).

They started off slowly with third place finish behind Plaisted/Pitt and Stuart Firth/Tim Green in heat three due to bike problems before finishing second behind Treloar/Cox (heat 7), and then recorded three straight wins to book a spot in the final and have third choice of gates, which was position three(white).

Monson/Summerhayes scored 11 points (three wins and two thirds).

They started the meeting off with three wins from their first three heats, before finishing third behind Headland and Hudson (heat 14) and Treloar and Plaisted (heat 19) to be the fourth highest point scorer on the night.

The much travelled Queensland/South Australian team of Brodie Cohen/Jesse Headland were the fifth highest point scorers with 10 points (two wins, two seconds) behind Treloar in heat one and Plaisted in heat 10 and a costly fourth place finish in heat 14 behind Headland, Hudson and Monson.

New South Wales number two Shane Hudson/ Adam Constable were the sixth highest point scorers with nine points as were Queensland number four Stuart Firth/Tim Green who were somewhat the surprise packet of the meeting also scoring nine points to make it through to the semi final.

Hudson/Constable scored a win, three seconds behind Byren Gates/Eli Bock (heat 2), Headland (heat14) and qualifying meeting winner Kym Menadue/Shane Dolan (heat 17).

A costly exclusion in their second heat didn’t help them.

Firth/Green rode consistent all night scoring a win, two seconds and two thirds to book their spot in the semi final.

Just missing out on a spot in the semi final  and finishing in eighth place with eight points was Mildura’s Byren Gates/Eli Bock who rode well all night and scored a won, second and three thirds.

Kym Menadue/ Shane Dolan (a win, two seconds a third and a fourth) made an impressive Australian title debut and Shane Rudloff/Scott Morris(three seconds,a third and fourth) both finished with seven point tallies

Third generation rider Jake Treloar/Eli Wright made a very impressive debut scoring 6 points (three seconds) and two fourths from his five rides to finish 11th.He scored more points (6) on debut than what his famous dad Darrin did in 1986 in Cairns when he scored four.

The experience will do Jake the world of good.

1ST   Mark Plsisted/Ben Pitt    SA/VIC     14PTS

2ND  Darrin Treloar/Blake Cox     NSW     14PTS

3RD  Mick Headland/Brenton Kerr SA/ VIC  12

4TH Warren Monson/Andrew Summerhayes 11

5TH Shane Hudson/Adam Constable NSW    9

6TH Brodie Cohen/Jesse Headland QLD/SA 10

7TH Stuart Firth/Tim Green                QLD        9

8TH Byren Gates/Eli Bock                   VIC         8

9TH Kym Menadue/Shane Dolan       SA          7

10TH Shane Rudloff/Scott Morris      SA         7 

11TH Jake Treloar/Eli Wright             NSW      6

12TH Mark Mitchell/Tony Carter        SA        4

13TH Max Howse/Riley Commons   NSW     4

14TH Kane Golding/Isaac Amos        SA        3

15TH Paul Hemsworth/Adam Botham NSW 1

16TH Brandon Warke/Mitchell Danks Firth QLD 0

RESERVES

Brian Silvy/Damian Egan                   SA        0

Chris Walker/April Cottrell                 VIC      0

Dean Hobbs/Daniel Low                    SA       0