Darrin Treloar/Blake Cox win crash marred World Cup Championship final - March 2016

March 27, 2016 by Gillman Media

Darrin Treloar/Blake Cox won the inaugural FIM Speedway Sidecar 1000cc World Cup at Gillman Speedway last night, after a crash marred final virtually eliminated his opposition.

At the end of the twenty qualifying heats, three teams – Trent Headland/Darryl Whetstone, Darrin Treloar/Blake Cox and Mark Plaisted/Darcy Risstrom – had tied on 14 points and a countback was unable to split them. Treloar had beaten Plaisted in heat two; Headland then beat Treloar in heat 5; and Plaisted beat Headland in heat 9, so the riders drew for choice of gate positions in the final. After the ballot, Plaisted chose red, Treloar blue and Headland white.

They were joined by Mick Headland/Jesse Headland in yellow. Headland (10 pts) had beaten three Kiwis, Andrew Buchanan/Brady Cox (12), Derek Ramsay/Matthew Ramsay (9) and Aiden Thwaites/Shane Twiss (8) in the last chance semi-final. Headland was one of only two unbeaten riders after 8 heats – the other was his son Trent – but he was relegated to third by Plaisted and Trent in heat 9, and then suffered a flat tyre in heat 15 against Treloar and Buchanan.

Headland had no trouble winning the semi-final and leading into the final it had been a well-run, fault free event but all hell was about to break loose in the final.

From the start it was Plaisted who took the lead but he took a high line through turns three/four and that was all Treloar needed to mount a passing move. Plaisted was carried higher and then got caught up in the heavy dirt near the fence and spun around and tipped over. The red lights came on straight away as the other riders raced down the main straight but as they crossed the start/finish line, Trent ran into the back of Mick, and Jesse was dragged off the bike and then run over by brother Trent which in turn caused Trent to cartwheel spectacularly in a terrible looking crash.

It looked bad for all three but particularly Jesse who was laying motionless on the track. Two ambulances came onto the track but after lengthy treatment all riders and passengers were able to get to their feet.

The referee’s decision was Mark Plaisted excluded as the cause of the race stoppage, and the other three all eligible for the restart subject to medical assessment. The medical assessment ruled out Jesse Headland with a suspected broken collarbone, which in turn ruled out Mick Headland, leaving just Treloar and Trent to contest the rerun, and with Trent battered and bruised, Treloar had no trouble winning to add another title to his long list of achievements.

The riders, subject to fitness, all return to Gillman again tonight for round 1 of the Oceania Championship. There will obviously been some doubt on Mick Headland for tonight, while another possible non-starter could be Warren Monson/Matt Morgan, who equalled the track record in their first race last night but then withdrew from the meeting with engine trouble.