Sixteen Riders Chase Eight Places At Gillman Saturday Night - March 2013

March 26, 2013 by Gillman Media

24 riders will take to the track at Gillman Speedway this weekend in two nights of world class speedway action to decide the 2013 Australian Sidecar Champion.

There has been one big event after another at Gillman this season, starting with the Blackchrome Sidecar Spectacular back on 10 November, followed by the Gillman Track Championship, South Australian Championship, Gillman Masters and the Ikon Suspension Grand Slam rounds.

All were prestigious events, with plenty of kudos for the winners, but nothing compares to the Australian Championship.

This is the toughest event in World Speedway Sidecar racing and on Saturday night (30 March), sixteen of those riders will take part in the K Trans Qualifying Meeting to determine eight riders to go forward to the Championship decider on Sunday night (31 March).

It sounds relatively easy to score enough points from five rides to finish in the top eight, but tell that to the eight riders who miss out!

And make no mistake, some good riders are going to miss out because these riders are all amongst the best in Australia or they wouldn’t be there.

They won’t necessarily have a bike problem, or even do anything wrong. They might ride their hearts out and have us thinking they deserved to get through, but the simple fact is only eight can make it.

For those that do make the cut, it all starts from scratch again Sunday night, but as recently as 2010 both first and second places in the final went to riders who had come through the qualifying meeting – Jason Aldridge and Rick Howse – so Saturday night’s riders will all know it is possible to come through the qualifying meeting and win the whole shebang.

So who are the favourites to get through?

Well there are three former Australian Champions in the line-up – Mark Mitchell, Mark Drew and Russell Mitchell – and barring mishaps, they will be expected to get through.

Then there are three riders who have been in top form all season, often challenging and beating the very best riders, and they are Wes Jenkins, Jason Hardy and Trent Headland. Again, barring mishaps, they would be expected to qualify. Jenkins, in particular, is a rider who could be a serious threat in the title, but conversely he’s had mechanical issues during his appearances at Gillman this season and he’s going to need a trouble free run if he is to win the title – or even to qualify.

That’s six most Gillman regulars will have pencilled in but after that it gets much harder, in fact too hard, to predict who the other two will be.

James Hinton and Malcolm German are always around the mark in any event they contest, but they may suffer from a lack of track time this season, which could sway things towards Damien Niesche, Rick Stephens, Byren Gates or Clint Mayes, although Mayes may also suffer from a lack of much racing.

Niesche and Stephens have been in career best form so both would be worthy qualifiers, while Gates is capable of anything. He could come out and win the meeting, but could just as well miss the cut!

The two New South Wales teenagers, Hayden Bond and Shane Hudson, could also be in the mix at the end of the night, but once again lack of track time might be a problem, with few meetings held in New South Wales this season, but Mildura’s Neale Hancock and Alice Springs’ Chris Dess might struggle to qualify against this level of opposition.

Full details of the championship meetings are on the Gillman website under the news story “Gillman Speedway K Trans Australian Sidecar Championship Details” posted on Monday, 18 March.