The triple Australian championship winning combination of Darrin Treloar and passenger Justin Plaisted again showed why they are the benchmark for speedway sidecar racing in Australia with another clean-sweep at the Yarragundry Park track near Wagga Wagga last Saturday night. (April 12).
After winning the 2008 Australian Championship on the Easter weekend Treloar and Plaisted could have been excused if they took a well deserved rest, but if there is a meeting anywhere in the south-east part of the country invariably they will be there.
Riverina fans got a chance to see the champions in full flight on Saturday as they, by their own explanation, ‘tried out a few settings’ on their bike. Untroubled in winning all six of their races they looked better and faster as the night progressed.
Very impressive runner-up in the final was the young combination from the Central Coast James Hinton / Luke Dillon, who had their most successful meeting in their short career to date.
Pleasingly the participants from interstate performed well and judging by their reaction after the meeting they would be happy to come back to Wagga Wagga in the future.
Adelaide’s Damien Niesche / Klae Hobbs took third place in the final ahead of one of the Victorian teams, Simon Hartley / Peter Taylor, while the other Victorian duo of Mark Radford / Steve Stagg also acquitted themselves well.
In the speedway solo class three teenage riders dominated the action. Newcastle rider Sam Masters took the honours winning four of the five rounds, his one defeat coming at the hands of Victorian Jake Anderson who ultimately finished second overall.
Michael Penfold was also prominent but a series of mishaps kept him out of the overall placings.
The long track slider class was also decided by a final after the five rounds of heats with Tim Heffernan winning his first ever long track final with an all-the-way win over Strider Horton and teenager James Bevan, having his first long track outing.
Daniel Mason and Nathan Hedley had been among the top three scorers from the heats but a fall and bike problems respectively ended their hopes of hauling in Heffernan.
In the Classic Slider class Dave Clifton was victorious losing out in only one of the five rounds, but he had some great tussles with Cliff Patton throughout the meeting.
SPEEDWAY SIDECARS
Heat Points: Darrin Treloar / Justin Plaisted (NSW/SA) 15, James Hinton / Luke Dillon (NSW) 12, Damien Niesche / Klae Hobbs (SA) 10, Simon Hartley / Peter Taylor (Vic)10, Mark Radford / Steve Stagg (Vic) 6, Mick Farrell / Wayne Farrell (NSW) 6.
Final: Treloar / Plaisted 1
Hinton / Dillon 2
Niesche / Hobbs 3
Hartley / Taylor 4.
SPEEDWAY SOLOS
Final points: Sam Masters (NSW) 19, Jake Anderson (Vic) 15, Dave Stevens (NSW) 8, Michael Penfold (NSW) 5, Matt Jones (Vic) 3, Quentan Byrne (NSW) 0.
LONG TRACK SLIDERS
Heat points: Daniel Mason (NSW) 16, Tim Heffernan (NSW) 16, Nathan Hedley (SA) 15, Strider Horton (NSW) 14, James Bevan (NSW) 13, Cliff Patton (ACT) 9, Quentan Byrne (NSW) 9, Mark Aliprandi (NSW) 5.
Final: Heffernan 1
Horton 2
Bevan 3
Byrne 4
Mason fell
Hedley dnf.
CLASSIC SLIDERS
Final points: Dave Clifton (NSW) 19, Cliff Patton (ACT) 16, Bob Sunderland (NSW) 7, Mark Aliprandi (NSW) 5, Geoff Fisher (NSW) 3.
