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Last Updated: Nov 28th, 2010 - 10:22:29 |
Entries are now open for the 2010 Australian Speedway Sidecar Championship which will be staged at the Newcastle Showground Speedway on the Easter weekend in early April.
Who competes, and who decides who competes?
Well, Motorcycling Australia as the governing body of motorcycle sport in this country calls for entries which are to close on March 5, four weeks prior to the championship.
The entries are then considered by the Speedway Commission of MA who decides which riders are to be seeded direct to the championship meeting.
In recent seasons that has meant that between six and ten riders are straight into the championship decider.
Those riders would include the reigning world champion (if fit), the reigning Australian champion, and the No 1 riders from each state, to ensure that all states have some representation. Others who could be ‘seeded’ include the No.2 rider from a state where the No.1 is already qualified as World or Australian champion.
The riders who miss out on a ‘seeded’ berth are then assessed and a format for the Qualifying Meeting is determined. While not all entries are guaranteed a start, recent seasons have seen the majority of riders who entered given the opportunity of a crack at the Qualifying Meeting.
Depending on numbers the Qualifying Meeting could take the form of a 16-rider, 20-heat format, (like the championship decider but without the finals) or two groups of 13-riders racing over 13 heats each. Or some other format devised to cater for the number of riders deemed suitable to contest the qualifier.
Obviously how many riders are seeded dictates how many riders are left to come from the Qualifying Meeting which in recent seasons has provided fans with some exciting and desperate action from riders as they seek to qualify.
The Qualifying Meeting is particularly attractive for local riders who can look on the meeting with a ‘nothing to lose’ attitude as they do not need to travel and they are obviously well acquainted with the track.
One such local team is James Hinton and passenger Blake Cox who continue to improve and impress with recent meetings at Newcastle, Gosford and at the Australian Long Track Championships at Tamworth seeing them outperform more experienced opponents.
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