Gold Cup heads north with Moon and Lovell
Gillman Media 13 March 2023
The 100 year anniversary Sidecar Cup is heading north to Townsville after a comprehensive win by Queensland champions Tyler Moon and Adam Lovell at Gillman Speedway in Adelaide on Saturday night (11 March).
After finishing third once, and second twice, in the three previous major events over the past eight weeks at Gillman, Moon and Lovell went through the card unbeaten, and unchallenged, on Saturday night.
Second in the heat point scores, only beaten by Moon/Lovell, was 16-year-old Nate Headland and Jaxon Rayner, but they were pushed back into third in the final by veterans Mark Mitchell and Tony Carter (12 points).
Mitchell/Carter were beaten by Moon/Lovell, Headland/Rayner and surprise packets Aaron Silvy/Jaron Silvy in the heats.
Silvy missed the recent SA championship meeting after suffering a blown engine at an earlier meeting, but purchased Mark Plaisted’s FZR Yamaha during the week and will be thinking it was money well spent after they finished as the fourth highest scorers, with 11 points, and then won the semi-final before being excluded for running off the track in the final.
Placegetters behind Silvy in the semi-final were Daniel Puddy/Byron Mordaunt and Josh Pascoe/Matt Crawford, with Shane Rudloff/Scott Morris excluded for causing a race stoppage. Rudloff had been strongly challenging Silvy for the lead when he spun on the third lap which caused Pascoe to also spin to avoid a crash.
Rudloff had scored 11 points in the heats, Pascoe 9 and Puddy 7. Puddy started with a pointless ride in heat one, behind three of the eventual finalists – Moon, Headland and Silvy – and then flipped spectacularly in his second ride, but then rebounded well to score his 7 points from his last three rides, including a vital second place ahead of Kane Golding/Isaac Amos in heat 20 which decided the final starter in the semi-final by countback on that heat result, after Golding also finished on 7 points.
The support events were a small number of Solos and Classic Solos, and a good line-up of Classic Sidecars, including four Vincents.
A scratching in the Solo class meant the five remaining riders were merged into the same race each round, so we saw the two main riders, Brayden McGuinness and Michael West meet six times. They were expected to be hard fought races but McGuinness was in top form and won five of their six clashes in quick times. 17-year-old West is leaving to race in Germany soon, so this would have been an insight for him to what he’ll be in for, especially McGuinness’s aggressive pass in heat five, as McGuiness has ridden at similar levels of racing in Denmark, Germany and Poland in recent seasons.
The racing was closer in the Classic Solos with a couple of good races between Steven Graetz and Kevin Webb.
The Classic Sidecars were quite entertaining with the bikes much more reliable than usual - as everyone who entered turned up and only a couple dropped out during the night – and there was such eye-catching quick rides by Chris Rae/Jamie Flood and Jim Irwin/Jeremy Sherwood.
The Classics were dived into three classes, the British class which was for the four Vincents, another four bikes in the Evolution class, and eight bikes in a general “classic” class.
Jim Irwin, who won the SA Championship in 1988 and 1994, and was second to Tyler Moon’s dad Gary in 2004, was super-quick in the Evolution class and his last ride, in event 47, was faster than Aaron Silvy’s win in the Gold Cup semi-final two races earlier.
Likewise, Chris Rae, who won the SA Championship in 89 and 93, was very impressive in the Classic class, although he missed out on a clean sweep when he missed a gear in his last ride.
As impressive as they were, it was the Vincents everyone wanted to see (and hear) and they didn’t disappoint. All four pairings, Robert Kemp/Nick Johns, Dennis Nash/Darren Turner, Darren Nash/Greg Black and Ron Parker/Mick Sleeth, were evenly matched and the racing was close, in fact the first heat, event 9, was the best race of the night up to that point.
In the junior events Ryleigh McGregor (125cc Solo) and Lachlan Coppen/Hayden Kuchel (250cc Sidecar) were both unbeaten with eight wins apiece.
