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Last Updated: Nov 28th, 2010 - 10:22:29 |
The 2010 PBOZ Australia and Suzuki of Newcastle sponsored Australian Speedway Sidecar Championship will be the first time this historic event has been staged at the Newcastle Showground Speedway.
Even when you consider that the long gone and much lamented Newcastle International Motordrome (originally called Jerilderie Park Speedway) at Tomago only hosted the championship on three occasions it is a very infrequent staging of this event for a region so rich in speedway heritage as the Hunter region.
The Easter weekend showdown will bring together the nation’s best riders and a check of records, particularly over the past three decades, shows that visiting riders have a tremendous record in the championship.
Barely a quarter of the champions in that time have been riders who have been ‘locals’ from a staging track, or even riders who could claim some regular experience racing there.
The three championships staged at the old Tomago track follow that pattern.
Back in 1976 the great Western Australian Dennis Nash won the first of his five Australian Championships while there were no New South Wales riders on the rostrum.
It was again an interstate wipe-out of the locals in 1991 when Queensland rider Gary Moon won the championship – he will again be trying for his second win at Easter.
Darrin Treloar is the only home state rider to be crowned champion at the Motordrome when he headed off two interstaters in the 1995 title showdown.
With the Newcastle Showground track used so infrequently, riders from New South Wales can claim little in the way of “home track advantage”.
What Darrin Treloar can claim though is form, continuing red hot form, with victory in the Victorian Championship added to his record last weekend.
While Treloar is based in Sydney he always attracts plenty of fan support, but the partisan Newcastle fans are certain to get behind those riders from the Hunter region.
The only local team who have a placing in an Australian championship to their credit is the Maitland duo Grant Bond and passenger Glen Cox who finished in third place in 2008 at Gillman Speedway, Adelaide.
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