Darrin Treloar and Blake Cox win the Bob White Cup - March 2019

March 25, 2019 by Gillman Media

Darrin Treloar and Blake Cox won the inaugural Bob White Cup at Gillman Speedway on Saturday night (23 March).

With 20 nominations, the riders were split into two groups to give all riders a chance of riding in the Cup races.

The top eight riders, all from the forthcoming FIM Oceania Championship, rode in Group one with only the top point scorer earning direct qualification into the final. The remaining riders went into three semi-finals, against the top point scorers from group two, with the semi-final winners going into the final.

Treloar/Cox top scored in the group one heats, but not with a clean sheet, as they were beaten by Mark Mitchell/Tony Carter in heat six, leaving them with 11 from a possible 12 points. Like Treloar, Mitchell won three of his four heats, but bike trouble saw him relegated to third place behind Treloar and Stephens in his second heat, and so finished a point behind Treloar on 10 points.

The best racing during the heats were the races involving Shane Rudloff/Scott Morris, Rick Stephens/Nick O’Brien and Shane Hudson/Adam Constable and they were also prominent in the cut-throat semi-finals which were easily the best races of the night.

The first semi-final saw a close race between Mitchell and Tyler Moon/Adam Lovell with Mitchell winning but the next two semi-finals saw two really exciting races between Rudloff and Andrew Buchanan/Denny Cox in SF 2, and Stephens and Hudson in SF3.

The Rudloff-Buchanan race was possibly the race of the season as they were side by side for a lot of the race, with Buchanan trying to push Rudloff out, and Rudloff clamping Buchanan on the pole line until Rudloff clipped the fence on the back straight on lap three and lost a little ground.

The Stephens-Hudson race was almost as good as they were also side-by-side for several laps before Stephens edged ahead.

By comparison the Final was relatively straight forward with Treloar leading all the way, and Mitchell shaking off a strong early challenge from Buchanan to finish second with Buchanan third and Stephens fourth.

Jake Treloar made it a family double by taking out the Bob White Junior Cup, with passenger Kayden Gates, ahead of Nate Headland/Adam Niesche and Jackson Milner/Kaidyn Silvy.

Top photo: Standing, left to right, David Parker, who presented the trophies, Rick Stephens/Nick O’Brien (fourth), Andrew Buchanan/Denny Cox (third), Tony Carter/Mark Mitchell (second), Ron Parker/Shane Rudloff (Bob White was part of their pit crew). In front, Darrin Treloar/Blake Cox (winners). Photo by Judy Mackay.