Darrin Treloar still the Gillman Master - February 2014
February 9, 2014 by Gillman Media
Darrin Treloar proved he is still the Gillman Master when he and passenger Blake Cox won the Downer Gillman Speedway Sidecar Masters with ease at Gillman Speedway on Saturday night.
The win was Treloar’s sixth in seven attempts.
Placegetters behind Treloar in the final were Mark Plaisted/Mark Anthony, Mick Headland/Jesse Headland and Warren Monson/Matt Morgan.
There was a delay of about an hour early in the meeting when Sidecar passenger Paul Waters landed awkwardly in a fall and received a badly broken leg. He needed a lot of medical attention on the track before he could be put into an ambulance and taken to hospital where he has already undergone an operation on the leg.
This is the crash in which Paul Waters was injured. As is often the case, the crash was the least alarming looking crash all season but resulted in the worst injury of the season. The crash occurred in heat eight when Mark Mitchell’s bike broke down and he was hit by the following bikes of Trent Headland and Ron Parker. Headland and Waters were high-sided from their bike but it didn’t look to be anything serious so it was a surprise when the ambulance was immediately called. Waters had landed awkwardly and suffered a compound fractured left leg. We wish him well for his recovery. Photo © Judy Mackay.
The long delay, and the accompanying concern for Paul Waters’ condition, robbed the meeting of a lot of its excitement and atmosphere and detracted from the fact there was a lot of close racing, both before and after the accident.
The delay also resulted in a number of events being cut from the programme to allow a reasonable finishing time, but that had effect on the results as the four finalists were clearly the top four riders on the night.
Treloar, Plaisted and Headland were the three automatic qualifiers for the final after all three scored 11 points from their four completed rides.
Treloar dropped his only point to Ron Parker in his first ride after suffering some bike problems; Plaisted was beaten by Headland, also in his first ride; while Headland was beaten by Treloar in heat 12.
Monson was the next highest scorer with 10 points, well ahead of the other three semi-finalists – Jason Hardy/Jack Spear, Ron Parker/Derick Thomas and Mark Mitchell/Tom Golding – who each scored 6 points, and he won the semi-final quite easily from Mitchell and Hardy.
In the support events, the Bichard family had a good night with Tim Bichard/Dale Knights the top scorers in the group two sidecar races, and Keith Bichard/Brett Lewis top scoring in the group three races.
As expected former Polish champion Adam Skórnicki was untroubled to win the three solo races, while there was plenty of interest in the quad races with star rider Mel Brandle attempting to pass eight other riders from the 80 metre back mark and he was successful in two of the four races.
Full heat results are on the Gillman Speedway website under the results tab.
This is the crash in which Paul Waters was injured. As is often the case, the crash was the least alarming looking crash all season but resulted in the worst injury of the season. The crash occurred in heat eight when Mark Mitchell’s bike broke down and he was hit by the following bikes of Trent Headland and Ron Parker. Headland and Waters were high-sided from their bike but it didn’t look to be anything serious so it was a surprise when the ambulance was immediately called. Waters had landed awkwardly and suffered a compound fractured left leg. We wish him well for his recovery. Photo © Judy Mackay.
Robert Medson (left) and Adam Skórnicki in the first Solo race. Photo © Judy Mackay.