Brodie Cohen To Contest The Sidecar Grand Slam Series - July 2013

July 22, 2013 by Gillman Media

The Speedway Sidecar Grand Slam organiser, Full Throttle Promotions, announced today that Townsville’s Brodie Cohen has confirming that he and passenger Cal Campbell will contest all rounds of the 2013/14 Sidecar Grand Slam series, and Cohen has made his intentions clear to his rivals that he wants to win this season’s series.

Cohen last appeared in the series grand finale at Gillman Speedway back in the inaugural season of 2011/12, where he sustained a broken collarbone, shoulder blade and socket in his opening heat of the night. After undergoing surgery to have a plate inserted, Cohen has had a prolonged period of recovery, which has allowed him to work on his fitness in readiness for the upcoming season.

“Since the crash, I’ve been working hard to not only be in good health but also obtain some great sponsors,” Cohen said.

“We’ve picked up a couple of new supporters in Charlie Camilleri and Brett Barrett, who join TRE, JR’s and The Zoo Health and Fitness in supporting my efforts for this season’s Grand Slam.”

Having these sponsors definitely helps takes some pressure off Cohen finding the funds required to travel to each of the rounds on the Sidecar Grand Slam schedule. Being based in Townsville, Cohen and his team travel the furthest of all of the teams contesting and this does put pressure on him.

“Given the location of where we are based, the travel certainly takes a massive chunk out of our team budget,” he added.

“For us, it’s usually a 20 hour drive to places such as Kurri Speedway and I can’t afford to take time off work to drive to each venue.”

“With the added support of the new sponsors along with my existing ones, it certainly takes the pressure off finding the budget needed to travel to each venue. I leave all the transportation and on-track prep to my dad, Paul, and all I need to do is just fly in and fly out to each round without all that added stress financially and mentally. That said we do it because we love the sport.”

Along with his new and existing sponsors, Cohen has reunited his association with former Australian Sidecar Champion passenger, Cal Campbell. With regular passenger Josh Sinnott unavailable due to work commitments, Campbell has stepped in join Cohen for all rounds. Campbell is no stranger to the Sidecar Grand Slam, having partnered with Cohen in numerous rounds during the inaugural season back in 2011/12.

“It’s good to be racing with Cal again,” he added.

“We did a number of rounds during the inaugural Grand Slam a few seasons ago and we showed that we could certainly take it right up to our opposition. With Josh not being available, Cal was the first person I called upon to do the job. He might be in his 50s, but he is a very fit bloke and more than capable of doing the job. Also, I can rely on his experience to get the job done.”

Whilst Cohen is determined to win this season’s contest, he points out that defending champion, Mark Plaisted, is the man to beat.

“Mark is hot to trot right now,” he said. “He’s got good machinery and a good passenger in Sam (Gilbert), so he’s going to be hard to beat. Then you have the likes of Darrin Treloar and Mick Headland who also want to win, so this season will be very competitive.”

“Also, we’re traveling to new venues such as Arunga Park in Alice Springs and Albury. I’ve raced at Arunga Park before, but never at Albury and I can’t wait to race there because what we’ll bring to the fans is some of the best racing that they’ll ever see. They’re going to be blown away at how tough and fast sidecar racing is about and we race not only to win but to provide pure entertainment.”

Cohen joins defending champion Mark Plaisted, Mick Headland, New Zealand’s Andrew Buchanan and English teams Mark Cossar and Mick Cave as the full-time riders so far announced for the series.

The 2013/14 Sidecar Grand Slam commences at Kurri Speedway on November 16, and there wll be two rounds held at Gillman Speedway — round five on Saturday, 22 February 2014, and the Grand Final (round 7) a month later on Saturday, 22 March 2014.

You can follow the Sidecar Grand Slam on Twitter (@SidecarGS) and Facebook (SidecarGrandSlam).