A tragic accident at the 2008 City of Charles Sturt Open , Sponsored by Shasandy,s Auto Care , where a young rider from the Salisbury club , Matt Mathews, was taken by ambulance to hospital.

Matt was returning to racing after a bad crash at LeFevre where he had suspected spinal and kidney damage and was treated as a emergency.

The unfortunate accident happened just in front of where I was filming the race , and when the replay of that accident shows just how bad that crash was by seeing it frame by frame, Matt's lucky to have not broken his neck! Maybe I should not have said that but if you could see this footage I'm sure you would agree.

Reason being , Matt is still in hospital as I write this and after contacting the family home to get an answering service , I think it would be a fair bet that , thats where his family is.

The medical staff at the ground did a great job and kept Matt from moving anything and placed a neck brace on him before having the Jordan Frame built around and under Matt and safely removed him from the track , an Ambulance had already been summoned to the track. It was great to see the club has up to date First Aid equipement , although it's sad to have to use it .

I'm sure ,later on when Matts up and about again he will be chuffed to find out the Ambulance driver/medico who helped Matt was non other than Brayden Lyle , a former Power  player, which just happens to be the family's chosen AFL team!

I'm also sure all familes and riders forward their best wishes as do we.Get well Matt.

Some good news was experienced today at the Findon track when politician , Jay Whetherall , presented the Findon President with half the proceeds of a fundraiser put on by Jay. Top bloke this Jay! He handed over a kool $1000.00 to the club and was happy to do it!

Seventy Two riders competed today in this open , and , although a lot of the name riders were abscent , the racing certainly didn't suffer. It was a pearler of a day and we were entertained with some cracker racing. Some pretty hefty shoves were laid on , as attested to by the need for an ambulance . The old fellas actually remained on their bikes for a change and everyone had a great day.

The Tinytots got things  rolling with five little champs getting a trophy for their efforts and they were , Daniel Dobie , Tia Blatchford , Taiaha thompson , David Forester and Delaccia Pride.

Next up were the new class being run , at Findon only at the moment , but I can see this catching on very quickly at other clubs , was the Division 3 under 13's..26".. 3 lapper , decided on total points ! These kids took to it like a duck to water and showed some great riding along the way. Nicole Kinross won every race for a (maximum 20) while Shane Bentley (15) showed hes ready with 3 straight seconds.

Braden Makepeace got third (8) and ex Salisbury rider, now a Comet , Patrick Evans , picked up fourth (4).

Division two over four laps , was up next and they too had six starters , and were also decided on total points. This division was taken out by Ross Priest on (15) after a ride off with Bobby McMillan also (15) Bobby came to race today!Next came Tony Bax , who is impressing with his riding lately on (9)Matt Mathews picked up fourth on (6) while Daniel Bax had a day to forget!

An amazing thing happened during this division .In race three , when Ross Priest was the proverbial mile in front , had a crash all by himself and ended up not scoring a point in the end.Amazing!

Division Seven was up next and ten riders had to be whittled down to four on the podium and after all the hard fought heats Jack Norman came out undefeated on (16) and picking up second with (13) was Michael Ratcliff over Kian Bird , also (13) while Mathew Snowden scored fourth on (7).

Division Six over three laps was next and they only had four starters so the object of all the racing was to see in which order they would recieve their trophies!In the end Matt Bryant marched through undefeated on (20) with Todd Clarke getting five consecutive seconds for (15) over Michael Walton on (8) and Mathew Hurley on (6).

Division Five had ten starters over three laps, going into the final with three riders locked on (14) apiece were Brayden Clarke (three wins) Trent Forester (two wins ) and Shane Bentley (two wins).Looked like a big final coming up and it was with Shane Bentley taking the win over Brayden Clarke , Plymouth Christian and Patrick Evans.

Division Four , also over three laps , had eight starters . Michael Karpany , from the LeFevre club has certainly come alive of late and rode a great championship with a max (16)Vella on (13) was looking a threat so were the two locked on (12) each Kinross and Millikin.This was a great final with places swapping around but at the finsh line it was Nicole Kinross first followed by Robbie Vella , Michael Karpany and Austin McDonald.

Division Three over three laps was hotly contested today by seven riders and the first three placings were a Salisbury trifecta with Dean Jolly (18) dropping only a couple of points to second placed Anthony Daniels (15) while third saw Jay Walters pick up (12) from fourth placed Murraylands rider Daniel Randall on (3).

Over 30's over four laps had seven starters today and this is one division thats been expanding of late.I dont mean the " Athletes" that race in this division but rather their numbers.Did an interview with one of the comback riders in this division and his amazing old bike today so lookout for that one.

Total points decided the outcome of this lot today and these guys are getting fitter and quicker every outing and they displayed all the moves and bumps to an appreciative crowd.

At the end of the day we had four different winners out of the five races with the honours going to Robert Thompson(15)who I saw riding happily home along the road , over John Hill (10) who had a funny sort of a day. John was tied on (10) with Darren Shultz who had a rideoff with Hilly and it was a real knock en down drag em out ride too,well done guys.

Third went to Darren Shultz (10) over Andrew Dobie (6). If Andrew could only find a way to keep his feet on those pedals he may have finished much better as he slipped off three times that I saw.

Division One (OPEN) Section over four laps decided on total points with nine starters. This is the division where Mathews had his big crash in race three where Murraylands rider , Daniel Thompson , was excluded for barging.

Just about everything Cody Chadwick has touched lately has turned to gold , lets hope the trend continues when he leads our Aussie juniors against the best the world has to offer in the up coming world titles.He touched gold again today by winning this division with (19) over Ross Priest on (16)Brad Gentle on (5) who tried hard today for little reward and two exclusions for jumping the gate didn't help.

Fourth went to Bobby McMillan , also on (5) after a rough old time having a rideoff with the roughmaster himself ...Gentle!

Fantastic championship put on by the Findon club again , sad about Mathews injury but like all racing , it can be dangerous.Great to see our pollies in action and giving to the clubs,well done and also to the Sponsor who backed this championship , Shasandy's Auto Care.

Cody Chadwick earned the rider of the meet and was awarded a nice perpetual trophy for his troubles.