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Last Updated: Apr 6th, 2010 - 23:05:36 |
North Queensland duo Jason Aldridge and passenger Cal Campbell are the new Australian Speedway Sidecar champions after emerging victorious in the title meeting at the Newcastle Showground on the Easter weekend.
They won a cosmopolitan A Final on Sunday night leading home Rick Howse / Adam Commons of Broken Hill, the only former champions in the final Darrin Treloar / Justin Plaisted who hail from Sydney and Adelaide respectively, with father and son duo Mick and Jessie Headland of Murray Bridge trailing.
In an unusual occurrence the top two teams in the Championship had to come through the Qualifying Meeting on the Saturday before they went on to triumph on the Sunday against all of the seeded riders.
The dramatic and drawn out qualifier was marred by two nasty accidents, but thankfully at the end the right riders qualified through to the championship decider.
Those qualifiers were - Howse / Commons (14), Aldridge / Campbell (13), Christopher / Koppe (12), Plaisted / Spear (12), Monson / Deven Gates (11), Puddy / Morgan (9), Bond / Cox (8), Café / Morris (7), Moon / Ing (6) and Hartley / Chisholm (6).
Championship night produced the usual dramas and disappointments, most notably when defending champions Mark Mitchell / Tom Golding crashed in their opening heat and after contesting the re-run they then withdrew from the meeting.
It took to the end of Heat 20 to establish the final make-up of the B and A Finals with the top three determined to be Howse / Commons, unbeaten on 15 points, Treloar / Plaisted on 13 points and Aldridge / Campbell on 11, after having been excluded in their opening ride.
The B Final was left with Plaisted / Spear (10), Russell Mitchell / Karan (9), Byren Gates / O’Loughlin (9) and the Headlands (8), the latter having made it on countback.
Just missing out were Moon / Ing, Bond / Cox and Cohen / Ferguson, all on eight points, followed by Café / Morris (6), Christopher / Koppe (5), Puddy / Morgan (4), Monson / Gates (3), Mark Mitchell / Golding (1), Hartley / Chisholm (1) and reserve Parker / Schwarzer (1 from 4 rides).
The best of the local hopes were Bond / Cox but they managed just one heat win and struggled to take the battle up to the big guns.
Unfortunately Café / Morris were forced onto a borrowed bike after serious problems with their machine late in the Qualifying Meeting.
Come the B Final the Headlands did everything right beating Plaisted / Spear and Gates / O’Loughlin after Russell Mitchell / Karan were forced out while holding second.
In the decider Aldridge / Campbell made a brilliant start to lead away from Howse / Commons while Treloar / Plaisted were poorly away, not for the first time of the night, and had to round up the Headlands before setting out on what was a forlorn and unrewarded chase on the two frontrunners.
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