Mark Plaisted and Ben Pitt win again
Gillman Media 31 March 2025
Mark Plaisted and Ben Pitt successfully defended their FIM Oceania Sidecar Championship crown at Gillman Speedway on Saturday night (29 March) and in doing so also completed a clean sweep of the major events they have contested this season.
They had previously won the Gillman Sidecar Spectacular, the South Australian Championship, the privately promoted Darrin Treloar Cup, all at Gillman, and the Victorian Championship in Mildura.
The Oceania Championship win was the fourth for Plaisted, and his third with Pitt as passenger.
In the week leading up to the meeting, anticipation was high for a blockbuster final between the only riders to win the Australian Championship over the last twelve years, and the four finalists from last season, Darrin Treloar, Justin Plaisted, Mark Plaisted and Trent Headland, but that possibility was gone before the meeting even started when, disappointingly, Darrin Treloar and Blake Cox had to withdraw late on Thursday night.
In their absence however, Queensland Champions Tyler Moon and Adam Lovell, stepped into the breach, and after 16 heats, Plaisted/Pitt, Justin Plaisted/Brian Anthony, Trent Headland/Jaxon Rayner and Moon/Lovell were all unbeaten on 12 points and drawn to meet in heat 18.
Here the cards fell Mark Plaisted’s way as he was drawn in red which, with his form both during the season, and on the night, made him odds on to win, which in turn would give him first choice of gate in the final.
Mark subsequently took the early lead with Justin second, Headland third and Moon fourth. Then, going through turn three, Headland/Rayner got slightly sideways and Moon clipped the back of their bike, upending them and with the bike landing on Headland. Fortunately Headland and Rayner were not injured but they were excluded from the rerun which was won by Mark ahead of Justin and Moon who all went into the final.
Headland and Rayner were relegated to the semi-final where they came up against Kym Menadue/Shane Dolan (10 points), Malcolm German/Cameron White (10) and Josh Pascoe/Ayrton Canning (8).
Just missing a place in the semi-final were Brian Silvy/Glen Zaworski and Rick Stephens/Jeremy Sherwood on 7 points, and Byron Mordaunt/Kate Barnes on 6, and Stephens and Mordaunt both missed the chance of a higher finish with infield exclusions.
The start of the semi-final didn’t bring any surprises as Headland raced into the lead with Menadue and German battling for second place but on the back straight on lap two German got out of shape and passenger Cameron White was thrown from the bike in turn three, straight into the path of Pascoe and Canning who had no chance of avoiding him. They hit him and cartwheeled into the fence, the bike briefly landing on top of the air fence before dropping back onto the track. First Canning, and then Pascoe, were quickly to their feet but White looked in a bad way. To the huge relief of the crowd, however, it was announced he was conscious, talking to the medics and was being taken to hospital with a suspected broken arm.
The rerun was to be a two bike run-off but as the tapes flew only one moved! Headland had dropped a chain at the start and Menadue was left to complete the four laps on his own.
In the final, Mark Plaisted, in red, and brother Justin, in blue, were the best from the tapes and led through the first turn. Going towards turn two Mark moved up track and Justin spun out. After watching a replay referee Angus Bugeja called all four back for a restart.
In the restart Mark got a clear lead but going down the back straight, Justin’s sidecar wheel lifted and he shot across the track, in front of Moon and Menadue, and onto the infield at high speed, where he did a remarkable job to first avoid crashing and then avoid running back onto the track and into the other bikes. It all looked very alarming but they did a wonderful job of regaining control.
In their absence Plaisted/Pitt cleared away for a comfortable win with Moon/Lovell second and Menadue/Dolan third.
