Trent Headland and Jaxon Rayner win Jim Irwin Cup

Gillman Media 9 December 2024

Former South Australian Sidecar Champion Jim Irwin was well pleased with the Sidecar Cup meeting carrying his name at Gillman Speedway on Saturday night (7 December).

The meeting attracted a nomination list worthy of an Australian Championship, headed by three of the finalists from October’s Championship — winner Darrin Treloar, runners-up Justin Plaisted/Damian Egan and fourth placegetters Trent Headland/Jaxon Rayner. and the riders produced racing as good as you would see at an Australian Championship, and not just the acknowledged stars, but riders most of the way down the scorecard, showing the strength in depth of the Sidecar fields at Gillman.

Treloar was without regular passenger Blake Cox, who had started a new job and was unavailable, but Jesse Headland, who had previously won the Australian Championship, FIM Oceania Championship and FIM World Cup with Treloar, jumped on board so Treloar could take part in a meeting he very much wanted to be a part of, having been a friend of Jim Irwin’s throughout his (Darrin’s) speedway career.

The night started in spectacular fashion with an exciting race between Hagan Campbell/Riley Campbell, Malcolm German/Cameron White, Tyler Moon/Adam Lovell and Josh Pascoe/Greg Black. Campbell was the early leader and looked good but was ultimately pushed back into last place as German, Moon and Pascoe had a close race for the win which went to Moon after he went under German on the last lap.

Trent Headland, Rick Stephens/Nick O’Brien and Darrin Treloar won the other heats in the first round, Treloar’s win coming after a hectic first lap between Brodie Cohen/Josh Murray, Treloar and Mick Headland/Brenton Kerr.

The meeting didn’t start well for Justin Plaisted however as he had clutch trouble heading to the tapes in his first ride, against Trent Headland in heat two, and had to sit the race out.

Plaisted’s night didn’t get much better in the next heat. He was drawn against Mick Headland, Malcolm German and Max Howse/Riley Commons – a hard heat even for an Australian #2. Headland won the start and led all the way and Plaisted was battling with German for second place until he slowed on the last lap and dropped to last place for another pointless ride. That put him out of contention for direct qualification for the final, and meant he couldn’t afford to drop any more points if he was to get into the semi-final.

Other race winners in round two were Hagan Campbell after a close race with Adam Pascoe/Mark-John Papastamatis, Bodie Cohen and Trent Headland.

Headland’s win came against Treloar in heat eight, in which they were wheel to wheel for the four laps, with only 0.267 of a second separating them at the finish, but heat seven, with Cohen, Moon and Stephens, was an early contender for race of the season. Stephens was the early leader until Cohen took the lead on lap three. Stephens came back around Cohen on the last lap but that allowed Moon to move through on the inside in turn three, and the was only 0.68 of a second between first and third. They can’t all win but one point really was scant reward for a tremendous ride by Stephens to lead the two Queensland stars for much of the race.

After only 8 heats we already only had one unbeaten team, Trent Headland and Jaxon Rayner, and they continued their unbeaten run in heat 11, but only after another wheel to wheel race, this time with Max Howse/Riley Commons. The finish was so close the announcers even disagreed on the winner, Trevor Scott thought Howse got up on the line, but Nate Headland thought his Dad just held on and the transponder times supported his opinion, Headland winning by 0.036 of a second.

Justin Plaisted finally got on the scoreboard with a win in heat 10 after an early challenge by Cohen, and heats 9 and 12 were won by Treloar and Mick Headland respectively but only after some drama for Treloar.

Heat 9 saw Treloar up against two of the night’s in-form riders, Malcolm German and Rick Stephens, but at the end of the first lap it was Adam Pascoe and Mark-John Papastamatis, who only came into the Cup races as a replacement for the absent Tommy Adams, who led the race from German, Treloar and Stephens. Pascoe was still leading for most of the second lap before being passed by Treloar and then German, who then tried to pass Treloar in the pit turn on lap three but there was contact and Treloar had a rare crash. Although it was a heavy one, Treloar was eventually able to take his place in the rerun which he won from Pascoe, with German excluded, and Stephens a non-starter, and out for the rest of the night, after his bike caught on fire on the way to the restart.

In heat 12 another replacement pair, Byron Mordaunt/Jarrad Katzorke, who replaced Damien Niesche/Mitchell Spear, rode side by side with Mick Headland for the full four laps before Headland won.

The points after 12 heats were Trent Headland unbeaten on 9, Treloar 8, Mick Headland and Cohen 7, Moon 6, Campbell, Howse and Pascoe 5, German and Stephen Fowler/Jeremy Sherwood 4, Stephens also 4 but out, and Justin Plaisted down on 3, with plenty of work to do and facing Treloar and Moon in his fourth ride.

German and Trent Headland had easy wins to start round 4, heat 14 with Headland being an anti-climax with Stephens out and then Mick Headland touching the tapes – a big mistake that ultimately cost him dearly.

Heat 15 was Plaisted’s next race and it was Moon who was the early leader. Plaisted got under him in turn four, but Treloar came through from third and took the lead on lap two only for Plaisted to retake the lead on the same lap and go on to score the win and keep his hopes of a semi-final place alive.

Heat 16 was another which showed the strength in depth when Josh Pascoe/Greg Black, who had a wretched night with bike problems, a rarity for this well-prepared team, were the early leaders from Howse and Cohen, but after being three-wide at one stage Howse took the win from Cohen with Pascoe a non-finisher again and this time out for the night, and finishing with a very dismal zero points.

Points with one round to go were Trent Headland, still unbeaten and certain of a place in the final, on 12, Treloar 10, Cohen 9, Howse 8, Mick Headland and German 7, Plaisted, Moon and Campbell 6.

The last round started with Malcolm German continuing his impressive comeback form to lead all the way from Cohen, now with Adam Lovell as passenger as Josh Murray had injured his hand in a previous race. Trent Headland was only able to get one point for third place, but he was still assured of first gate choice in the final. German on 10 and Cohen on 11 were now guaranteed a place in the semi-final and Cohen was still with a chance of going straight into the final.

After Headland’s surprise third place in heat 17, Treloar suffered the same fate in heat 18 when Howse led all the way from Campbell and Treloar, meaning Cohen, Howse and Treloar were now all tied on 11 points.

In the final two heats Moon beat Mick Headland in heat 19 and Plaisted had an easy win in heat 20 and after all the countbacks it was Trent Headland (13), Howse (11) and Treloar (11) straight into the final, and Cohen (11), German (10), Plaisted (9) and Moon (9) into the semi-final with Mick Headland (9) and Campbell (8) missing out.

Plaisted had had a pretty hard night but it was about to get a lot worse in the semi-final. Cohen, now with Riley Campbell as passenger, and German took the lead from the start with Moon in third but they bunched together in turn two and Plaisted ran into the back of them and tipped over onto to Moon. It was not a bad looking crash but somehow Justin got his leg caught between the sidecar wheel and chassis and suffered torn ankle and knee ligaments, so he could be out for a lengthy time.

The rerun was a classic with Cohen, looking a possible winner at one stage, before being relegated back to third and then after multiple positional changes it was Moon who took the win to go into the final, with Cohen second and German third.

The Final was pretty straight forward compared to the semi. After a bingle between Howse and Moon in turn one the race was restarted but Howse’s bike stopped when the tapes went up and he was out, and Headland led all the way with Treloar second and Moon third, with Jesse Headland producing one final bit of drama when he fell after the finish, fortunately without any injury.

In the Support Sidecar Scratch Races Jack Spear/Jesse Irwin made a surprise appearance riding Shane Hudson’s bike and scored a maximum 12 points against Willy Walker/Liam Sherwood 7, and Joshua Kerr/Kate Barnes 3.

Dale Knights and Seane Chapman had close races for victory in all five of the Flat Track Solo races. Chapman was the favourite and won the first two heats, but Knights then won the other three heats. Con Twist was third each time, with Matt Paterson beating Greg Laanekorb for fourth place in four of the heats.

In the junior events, William Nicol (11 points) outscored Owen Chapman (9) after some close races in the 125cc Solo races, and Judd Plaisted/Kobe Plaisted won the 250cc Sidecar final from Broken Hill’s Jobe Zammit-Harvey/Nash Zammit-Harvey with Tilo Schultz/Riley Edson excluded after they half-spun while leading, causing a collision with the closely following Plaisteds.