Treloar and Headland unbeaten again to claim World Cup

April 5, 2018 by Gillman Media

Darrin Treloar and Jesse Headland’s second International victory was the FIM Speedway Sidecar World Cup on Sunday night.

Once again they were unbeaten on the night but just briefly, at the start of the night, there was a thought they might be under threat, particularly from Australian Champions Trent Headland and Darryl Whetstone.

Headland changed engines after a disappointing Oceania Championship, and won heat one in the fastest time of the night, and only .03 seconds slower than Treloar’s best time the night before.

And when Treloar was almost beaten by Jamie Moohan/Bayley Ogilvie in heat four, the other leading riders may have thought he was vulnerable but it was just a brief delusion.

In heat four Moohan won the start and slightly increased his lead on lap two but a mistake on lap three allowed Treloar to catch and pass him to win by just 12 metres.

If Treloar was to be beaten it would be in the very next heat which bought together the four first round heat winners – Headland, Mark Mitchell/Tony Carter, Warren Monson/Andrew Summerhayes and Treloar – but Treloar used the brief mandatory track grade time to make adjustments to his bike and normal service was resumed as he raced away to a comfortable win ahead of Mitchell, Headland and Monson in the second fastest time of the night.

From that point it was once again all Treloar but there was plenty of intrigue over who would get the automatic starts in the final and who would have to go through the last chance semi-final.

Monson’s last place in heat five meant he was the one in most danger of missing a top three finish, and any hope he had was extinguished in his very next ride when a tape break not only finished his chances of an automatic start in the final but even put a semi-final berth in jeopardy.

A win for Monson in heat eleven had looked pretty straight forward against Mick Cave/Bradley Steer, Hamish Golding/Liam Cox and Paul Whitelam/Alan Elliott, but as most spectators were focussed on a spectator getting admonished by track staff for taking photos in turn four, they missed Monson ride into the tapes.

The exclusion left him on just three points from three rides.

Prior to Monson’s race, Andrew Buchanan/Denny Cox had beaten Trent Headland and Jamie Moohan in heat nine, which was the best race of the night so far, with Buchanan coming from third place to pass Headland and then early race leader Moohan, with Moohan also passed by Headland later in the race, and after 12 heats the leading scorers were Treloar on 9, Mitchell 8, Buchanan 8, Trent Headland 6, Mick Headland/Brenton Kerr 6 and Jamie Moohan also on 6.

With a two point buffer over the riders on 6, the top three looked fairly set as Treloar, Mitchell and Buchanan, while the interest further down the scorecard focussed on whether Monson could reach the semi-final and put himself back in contention to retain his title. He was certainly riding well enough but then so were the others in the accepted top five, Treloar, Mitchell, Buchanan and Trent Headland.

There was a new “best race of the night” in heat fifteen with some fast and furious racing resulting in a win by Mitchell over Moohan and Mick Headland, with Golding excluded for barging, and with wins for Trent Headland, Treloar (over Buchanan) and Monson, the points with one round to go were Treloar 12, Mitchell 11, Buchanan 10, Trent Headland 9, Jamie Moohan 8, Mick Headland 7, Dave Bottrell/Chris Bottrell 7 and Monson 6, with Monson facing Moohan and Bottrell in heat 18, so a semi-final berth was no certainty for the defending champion.

First up, however, was heat 17, and a win by Trent Headland over his father Mick, put him on 12 points and suddenly Buchanan was now under the pump for a place in the final as he was drawn against Mitchell in heat 19 and needed to win. Mitchell was riding with a taped up dislocated shoulder from a crash the previous weekend but was riding better than he had all season so it was going to be tough for Buchanan.

Even worse for Buchanan, Monson won heat 18, which meant if he didn’t win heat 19 he would be facing Monson in the semi-final!

And that’s what happened.

Mitchell took the early lead but Buchanan drew level underneath him through turns three/four on the second lap but in the process lost control and almost fell. He did wonderfully well to regain control but the win was out of reach and the three automatic finalists were Treloar, unbeaten on 15, Mitchell on 14 and Trent Headland on 12.

The semi-finalists were Buchanan (12), Monson (9), Jamie Moohan (9) and Mick Headland (9).

It was impossible to pick a winner out of Buchanan and Monson but Moohan also had some claims after some impressive rides over the two nights, but his fate was ultimately decided in heat 18 where he held second place until the last two corners when Bottrell pushed under him and grabbed second by just 2 metres. That two metres was the difference between starting in gate two or three in the semi-final, and starting from three he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time as a turn one collision saw passenger Bayley Ogilvie suffer a broken wrist and their race was done. A sad end to what had been a good weekend’s work.

In their absence it was all Buchanan as he led all the way, although he had a nervous last lap as he almost lost control between turns one and two which allowed Monson to catch him and there was only six metres in it at the finish.

So, Buchanan into the final, and Monson left to rue that tape break which cost him an automatic start in the final.

The final was all Treloar. Against three worthy opponents, including the current Australia 1 and 2, he won the start from gate one and it was all over by turn two. He cleared out to win by 40 metres while the other three were wheel-to-wheel with Mitchell claiming a well-deserved second place, with Buchanan third and Headland fourth.

2018 FIM Speedway Sidecar World Cup

Heat points: Darrin Treloar/Jesse Headland 15 (3-3-3-3-3), Mark Mitchell/Tony Carter 14 (3-2-3-3-3), Trent Headland/Darryl Whetstone 12 (3-1-2-3-3), Andrew Buchanan/Denny Cox 12 (2-3-3-2-2), Warren Monson/Andrew Summerhayes 9 (3-0-T-3-3), Jamie Moohan/Bayley Ogilvie 9 (2-3-1-2-1), Mick Headland/Brenton Kerr 9 (1-3-2-1-2), Dave Bottrell/Chris Bottrell 9 (2-2-1-2-2), Hamish Golding/Liam Cox 7 (2-1-2-Xb-2), Paul Whitelam/Alan Elliott 5 (1-2-0-1-1), Mark Cossar/Carl Blyth 4 (0-2-2-0-R), Joe Jones/Tom Summers 4 (1-1-0-2-0), Mick Cave/Bradley Steer 4 (1-R-1-1-1), Dylan Moohan/Tyler Berger 3 (0-1-0-1-1), Bryan Motis/John Bach 1 (0-0-1-0-0), Will Penfold/Ricky Pay 0 (0-0-0-0-0), Damien Niesche/Mitchell Spear (reserve) 3 (3), Mark Plaisted/Ben Pitt (reserve) did not ride.

Semi-Final: Buchanan (R), Monson (B), M. Headland (Y), J. Moohan (W-ret), 60.493

Final: Treloar (R), Mitchell (B), Buchanan (Y), T. Headland (W), 59.865