Another maximum for Darrin Treloar/Jesse Headland at Gillman

February 27, 2018 by Gillman Media

Round three of the Nankang Tyres/Mitch Chassis Sidecar Super Series produced the closest racing of the season at Gillman Speedway on Saturday night with very small margins between the bikes in most races, but at the end of the night it was another clean sweep for Darrin Treloar/Jesse Headland.

Treloar/Headland have been in marvellous form this season and from 18 races in the series so far they have scored 17 wins and an exclusion for exceeding the two minute time allowance.

Although unbeaten on Saturday night, Treloar’s wins were not all clear cut which added to the excitement of the night. Several riders chased hard but the biggest threat was the Series second placed pair, Mark Plaisted/Ben Pitt in heat seven. Treloar and Plaisted exchanged the lead a couple of times on the first two laps before Treloar pulled away slightly for a 20 metre win, while Plaisted then had his hands full holding off Byren Gates/Michael O’Loughlin for second place.

At the end of the twenty heats the three direct qualifiers for the final were Treloar/Headland with the maximum 15 points, and Mark Mitchell/Tony Carter and Andrew Buchanan/Denny Cox with 13 each.

Mitchell and Buchanan both, of course, lost a point to Treloar, while Buchanan was also beaten by Mitchell, and Mitchell lost his other point to Trent Headland/Darryl Whetstone.

Headland/Whetstone just missed a place in the final, finishing with 12 points with losses to Plaisted, Buchanan and Treloar.

The last chance Semi-final was like a who’s who of Australian Speedway Sidecar racing and would have done justice to an Australian Championship Final, with current Australian Champion Trent Headland in gate 1, former Oceania Champion Mark Plaisted in 2, former World Track Racing Champion Mick Headland in 3, and Neale Hancock in 4. Hancock doesn’t have the titles against his name but on his night can beat anyone, so I think everyone’s heart was in their mouth just hoping the riders would get through the race safely and the expected fireworks would not result in any major crashes or injuries.

They need not have worried.

After 20 mostly action-packed heat races, the semi-final, so often the best race of the night, turned out to a be a total damp squib.

Firstly, as the green lights went on, Plaisted jumped the start and was adjudged to have touched the tapes and excluded despite his protestations. Then in the restart Trent Headland’s bike gave up the ghost and he idled around the first turn before pulling infield near the pits gate in turn two. In their absences, Mick Headland led all the way to qualify for the final, and then took it up to Treloar in the final, similar to their clashes of several seasons ago when they were the top two riders.

Treloar won the start in the final, while Headland was last away, but he moved under Mitchell in turn two, and Buchanan in turn three before giving chase to Treloar.

They were wheel to wheel through turn four on laps two and three but Headland couldn’t make a pass, and then lost some ground in the last turn allowing Treloar to win by 15 metres from Headland, with Buchanan a bike length back in third, and Mitchell in fourth.

With his nearest rivals, Mark Plaisted and Trent Headland missing the final, Treloar now has an unassailable lead in the series with one round still to go but it is wide open for the second, third and fourth placings which all have substantial bonus money attached to them.

The riders get to drop the worst of their three rounds, but even so the lowest score Treloar can finish with is his current score of 54 points while the best any other rider can finish with is 50 (Mark Plaisted if he scores maximum points in round four).

The leading scorers after three rounds are Darrin Treloar/Jesse Headland 54 (19-16-19), Trent Headland/Darryl Whetstone 41 (15-14-12), Mark Plaisted/Ben Pitt 39 (15-16-8), Andrew Buchanan/Denny Cox 33 (9-9-15), Mark Mitchell/Tony Carter 32 (8-10-14) and Mick Headland/Brenton Kerr 31 (9-11-11).

It was a bizarre night in the supporting Solo ranks with things going awry before the meeting even started when newly crowned Gillman champion Robert Branford fell in the pits and was sent to hospital for x-rays on a suspected broken wrist.

The next mishap came as the riders came out for heat one and Dakota Ballantyne broke a chain doing a practice start on the back straight. In his absence Robert Medson won from Arlo Bugeja and Tom Dixon.

In the following race, without the injured Branford, Brayden McGuinness, Fraser Bowes and Seth Hickey came to the tapes but as the race started Hickey’s bike caught on fire and he hurriedly dropped the bike onto the infield and scampered clear as a track marshal grabbed the fire extinguisher. Fortunately no injury, but he was out for the night reducing the field to six.

McGuinness beat Bowes in the rerun, and then Bugeja led all the way to beat Medson and Bowes in a drama-free heat three, before we lost another rider in heat four.

McGuinness led the race all the way ahead of Ballantyne and Dixon, but Ballantyne fell in the last corner, and he decided to give it away for the night, leaving five.

That meant heats five and six were combined and Bugeja, from gate five, scored a second win, ahead of Medson, McGuinness, Dixon and Bowes, to finish as the top point scorer with 8 points, with Medson and McGuinness on 7.

McGuinness then chose to go from gate five again in the final but Medson has his measure this time, leading all the way with Bugeja second ahead of McGuinness, Dixon and Bowes.

In the 125cc Under 16 Solo events, Patrick Bowes was the top point scorer with 10, ahead of Jackson Milner 9, Nicholas Possingham 8, Teagan Pedler 4 and Clay Burnett 2. Harry Sadler was sidelined after hurting a leg when he fell in the first turn of the first race.

Jake Treloar made it a family double when he and Keegan Caldwell (11 points) were the top point scorers in the 250cc Under 16 Sidecar events ahead of Jackson Milner/Adam Niesche 6, Mike Sheather/Kayden Gates 5, Nate Headland/- 5 and Clay Burnett/Kaidyn Silvy 4. Milner/Niesche won their first two rides before suffering a bike failure while leading Treloar/Caldwell in their third heat which also put them out of their last ride.

The next meeting is the highly-prized South Australian Sidecar Championship on Saturday, 10 March.