Mick Headland wins his first Gillman Sidecar Championship - November 2014

November 24, 2014 by Gillman Media

Mick Headland was making his first appearance of the season at Gillman Speedway on Saturday night, and riding with a rookie passenger, Luke Smith, but he managed to achieve something he had not been able to do in five previous attempts, win the Sailun Tyres Gillman Sidecar Championship.

There was a question mark over how Headland would go with an unknown passenger, but nevertheless he still shared the championship favouritism with defending champions Mark Plaisted/Brian Anthony and Justin Plaisted/Sam Harrison, and after the twelve qualifying heats they were the three teams who earned direct qualification to the final.

Headland was unbeaten in the heats to score 12 points, while Justin Plaisted scored 11, and Mark Plaisted 10, after they finished in that order when the draw saw them all clash in heat nine.

That heat result was a portent of things to come in the final, as they finished in the same order apart from Mark Plaisted suffering bike trouble and finished a position further back, in fourth place, half-a-lap behind the semi-final winners Byren Gates/Michael O’Loughlin.

The four qualifiers for the semi-final were Trent Headland/Darryl Whetstone (8), Jason Hardy/Adam Pascoe (7), Daniel Puddy/Luke Puddy (6) and Gates/O’Loughlin (5) and for three laps it was Headland who led and looked certain to make it a Headland-Plaisted family affair in the final, only for his bike to come to a stop on the last lap handing victory to the closely following Gates ahead of Hardy and Puddy.

Just missing a start in the semi were Damien Niesche/Mitchell Spear and Rob Patterson/Brenton Kerr on 4 points. Niesche was unlucky in that he had a comfortable second place and 2 points in the bag in his last heat only, like Headland in the semi, to break down on the last lap.

Of the others, the Kiwis David Gannon/Raymond Gannon scored 2 points, Mark Mitchell/Tom Golding withdrew after one race because they didn’t like the track conditions, and Arron Hartwig/Teagan Hartwig scratched earlier in the day because they were unable to get their bike together in time.

The Sailun Tyres Division 2 Championship also saw a team go through the night unbeaten, Mildura-based ex-Alice Springs rider Chris Dess and passenger Ben Pitt.

Dess won three of his heats easily but had to work hard for his win in heat nine against Tim Bichard/Dale Knights and Shane Rudloff/Damian Egan. He trailed in third place until the third lap before he first passed Rudloff, and then passed Bichard at the start of the last lap.

In the final he was pushed all the way by Rick Stephens/Darcy Risstrom, who had started poorly with a last place in heat one but had won their other three heats easily. They were wheel-to-wheel on the last lap and Stephens went under Dess on the run to the line but came up just short of victory. Rudloff/Egan finished third and Bichard/Knights fourth.

After a week-long forecast of a sunny day and 33 degrees, rain fell throughout the day and there was concern over whether the track was okay for the Solos. After a practice by Luke Mitchell, Robert Medson and Blake Ridley before the scheduled event 16, the Solo races were cancelled.