Mick & Jesse Headland win South Australian Sidecar Championship - December 2015

December 29, 2015 by Gillman Media

Father and son team Mick and Jesse Headland won the Sailun Tyres 2016 South Australian Sidecar Championship at Gillman Speedway tonight.

The win is Mick’s third but the first for Jesse.

A huge crowd witnessed an exciting night’s racing which culminated in the Headland’s win after a close race with Riverland brother-sister youngsters Arron and Teagan Hartwig, with former SA Champion Mark Mitchell (substitute passenger Darcy Risstrom) third and Australian Champions Justin Plaisted/Sam Harrison fourth.

Headland also top scored in the heats with 14 points, beaten only by Hartwig in heat 14. Hartwig finished with 12 points from 4 wins and an infield exclusion after he spun off the track while a clear early leader in his third ride. Between them, and the other direct qualifier for the final was Mitchell and Dale Knights on 13 points which included a new track record in their first ride.

The night ended in dramatic, and heroic, action for Mitchell however. He suffered a massive crash at the end of heat 20 when Mick Headland’s bike failed on the finish line and the closely following Mitchell hit him and rolled along the track. Both Mitchell and Knights required lengthy treatment on the track but then to everyone’s surprise, and delight, they fronted for the final just two races later – only to suffer another big crash.

Going into turn one, Mitchell and Hartwig touched and Mitchell crashed heavily. Again lengthy treatment followed with Dale Knights this time going off in the ambulance with a possible shoulder injury. But Mitchell’s night was not over as he fronted for the rerun with Darcy Risstrom as substitute passenger and managed to take third place.

Justin Plaisted was one of several star riders who suffered a pointless ride (from an engine failure in heat 1) but he recovered to reach the final with a thrilling win in the semi-final against Mark Plaisted/Darcy Risstrom, Trent Headland/Daz Whetstone and Rob Patterson/Don Morris.

Mark Plaisted, who despite finishing as fourth highest scorer on 11 points, seemed fairly subdued in the heats took the early lead in the semi-final and seemed headed for victory until Headland and Justin Plaisted collided on lap two and brought on the red lights with Headland excluded as the cause. In the rerun Mark again took the lead and when Justin hit the fence on the back straight and was passed by Patterson, Mark again looked set for victory but Justin came storming home and somehow squeezed through the narrowest of margins between Mark and the fence on the run to the line to bring the crowd to their feet with a photo finish victory.

Just missing a place in the semi-final were Tim Bichard/Anthony Schulz, on a countback with Justin Plaisted, and Shane Rudloff/Tom Adams.

Warren Monson/Andrew Summerhayes, Dave Bottrell/Deven Gates and Damien Niesche/Mitchell Spear were all non-starters following the meeting in Mildura the night before.

The full heat results can be read under the Results tab.

The next meeting at Gillman is the CBS Bins Australian Solo Championship round on Friday night, 8 January.