Sydney rider wins Blackchrome Sidecar Feature at Gillman - February 2016

February 21, 2016 by Gillman Media

After the best meeting of the season, a Sydney rider won the Blackchrome Sidecar Feature at Adelaide’s Gillman Speedway on Saturday night — but it wasn’t Darrin Treloar.

Instead it was Shane Hudson who celebrated his recent 21st birthday with a career-best meeting by taking out the main event.

Riding with comeback passenger Eli Wright for only the second time, Hudson started the meeting with a mediocre third place behind Mick Headland/Jesse Headland and Warren Monson/Matt Morgan, which didn’t give any hint of what was to come. After that first up blip, he reeled off four straight heat wins to get direct qualification for the final, and then passed Headland to win the final.

The meeting was a thriller from start to finish, with half of the 20 heats, and the semi-final and final, decided by less than a bike length or two, and after the 20 heats, three pairs were tied on 13 points – Hudson/Wright, Arron Hartwig/Teagan Hartwig, and Monson/Morgan. All three won their last ride to jump from 10 to 13 points, but one looked like being relegated to the semi-final as Headland was in heat 20 with an unbeaten 12 points and only needed 1 point to qualify on countback.

But there was an upset result. Headland went from third to first, passing Luke Puddy/Damian Egan and Damien Niesche/Mitchell Spear, to take the lead nearing the end of the first lap but Niesche came back with an aggressive pass to take the lead on the second lap which he held until the end – and even more as the race went for 5 laps. Second place would have still left Headland as the highest point scorer but he was excluded for going infield in his attempts to retake Niesche.

So by a quirk of fate, Headland (12), Niesche (12) and Neale Hancock/Brendan Johnson (11), who had finished wheel-to-wheel in heat 20, found themselves together again in the semi-final, along with Klae Hobbs/Jack Spear (8). This time there was no mistake by Headland as he led all the way, albeit only winning by a couple of bike lengths, to qualify for the final. Niesche was second, Hancock third and Hobbs fourth.

The final was Hudson in red, Hartwig blue, Monson white and Headland yellow, and it truly was anyone’s guess who would win. From the start Hudson was the best away and led into turn one, but Headland went around the field to take the lead going out of turn two onto the back straight. Hartwig and Monson also passed Hudson through turns three and four and there was contact between Hartwig and Headland as they finished the first lap. That seemed to unsettle Hartwig’s line going into turn one on the second lap and nearing turn two he spun and rolled, right in the path of Monson who ran over Teagan Hartwig’s leg and also tipped over.

Thankfully everyone was okay and the rerun, without Hartwig, was quickly underway. This time Headland changed tack and made an inside pass on Monson and Hudson down the back straight to take the lead and most people thought that was it, race over, but Hudson raced under him through turns one/two on the second lap and then held the lead to the finish, winning by about 10 metres with another 5 metres to Monson.

Meeting favourites Darrin Treloar/Blake Cox had another Gillman shocker. In their only previous meeting in Adelaide this season, the Darcy Ward Benefit meeting, they were beset by bike problems, Cox injured his leg and they only scored 1 point, and last night they didn’t fare much better. After leading their first race from start to finish, their bike gave up the ghost within metres of the line and they were beaten by Shane Rudloff/Tom Adams in a photo finish, and not long after they were back in the car and heading home to Sydney.

In the Sidecar Support races, Keith Bichard/Michael Bell and Dean Hobbs/Andy Westover top scored with 11 points apiece and then Bichard took the final from Hobbs and Kym Menadue/Eric Melton.

A great meeting and we can only hope for more of the same in the remaining meetings, the Gillman Championship, President’s Trophy, World Cup and Oceania Championship.

The countdown to the World Cup has well and truly begun!