Hunter Valley teenager Richard Sweetman continued a recent trend and experienced sidecar campaigner Chris Pym won his first individual national title – that was the speedway news from the 2007 Australian Long Track championship meeting at the Blayney Showground on November 3.

Both the solo and sidecar long track classes attracted just the one grid of riders – barely enough for championship status – and the ranks of both divisions dwindled during the day. Entrants for these two classes were less than 10% of the total entries for the meeting

With points counting over all four rounds, consistency, and survival, proved crucial in both divisions.

Over the past four years the solo long track crown has been won twice by Troy Batchelor, firstly as a 16-year-old, and then twice by Chris Holder and Sweetman built on that to take out the 2007 title.

There were plenty of twists along the way as Lee Herne led the first heat, before his bike packed up and he pushed home for almost half a lap (on an 800 metre track) to grab eighth place and some vital points after Strider Horton led home Jason Stewart, Sweetman and Daniel Mason.

Round 2 was declared null and void after a protest about the start, and the re-run saw Sweetman lead home Stewart, Kozza Smith (who had fallen in both Round 1 and the first attempt to run Round 2), Herne and Horton.

The first attempt to run Round 3 saw Stewart (one point adrift of Sweetman) fall at the first corner and a damaged machine ended his day. The re-run saw Smith again fall and Horton went down too, and out for the day. Herne eventually won from Sweetman and Tim Heffernan.

Before the last round, Smith had crashed out in the 250cc 2-stroke final, and it left only four riders with Herne leading home Sweetman, Josh
Grajczonek and Tim Heffernan.

That quartet of survivors ultimately took the top four placings with
Sweetman on 89 points (3,1,2,2) beating Herne on 81 (8,4,1,1), Grajczonek on 67 (5,6,5,3) and Heffernan on 65 (6,7,4,4,).

The sidecar long track class always loomed as a battle between defending champions Darrin Treloar / Justin Plaisted and Chris Pym / Adam Constable. The former won the first two rounds, the latter the third.

In the final round Pym / Constable grabbed the lead with Warren Monson / Devan Gates pushing Treloar / Plaisted back to third before a flat back tyre ended their hopes of retaining the title.

Pym / Constable finished on 92 points (2,3,1,1) beating Monson / Gates on 84 (3,2,3,2), Treloar / Plaisted 72 (1,1,2, -), James Hinton / Luke Dillon 54 (4,-,5,3) and Jayson Trewin / Jake French 34 (5,-,4,-).

There were plenty of names known to speedway regulars in the other seven championship classes, which all attracted big fields with either two, three or even four heats per rounds before a one-final final.

Speedway newcomer Michael Dyer won the 125cc championship ahead of Tom Armstrong and Glenn Scott, with Luke Gough sixth.

As mentioned previously Kozza Smith crashed out of the final of the 250cc 2-stroke class, after being equal top scorer in the heats, and he took out Tim Heffernan. Luke Johnson took the win from Graeme Smith and Michael Kirkness with Paul Caslick fifth.

The 250cc 4-stroke final went to Joshua Waters from Nathan Porombka and Rohan Tungate, with Tom Armstrong fourth and Jarrod Koppe seventh.

Darren Herrick won the 500cc FTX final from Michael Kirkness and Ashley
Wilesmith.

Luke Gough successfully defended his up to 450cc 4-stroke championship beating Luke Richards and Joshua Waters. Jarrod Koppe, Tom Armstrong and Paul Caslick all missed a berth in the final.

Josh Grajczonek won the over 450cc 4-stroke final ahead of Jarrod Koppe and Wayne Boserio, with Jason Stewart fourth.

The dirt track sidecar title went to Barry Raffin / Harold McCahon from
Rodney O’Meley / Beau Stangl and Paul Marko / Trevor O’Meley.

It was fortunate the meeting went ahead with everywhere between Sydney and Bathurst copping foul weather, but thankfully just down the highway at Blayney conditions were good until shortly after presentations were finished.

Overall the meeting provided plenty of excitement, although it was drawn out due to a number of accidents.