2007 Rising Sun Honda
Australian
Speedway Sidecar Championship
******Night
One******
26 Riders took to the track in two pools of 13 in a effort to qualify for the 10 remaining positions (5 from each pool) available for the Sunday night championship final. A good size crowd witnessed some excellent racing in heats that favoured those that rode from mid track up, with some excellent outside passes favouring the brave. While some heats were dominated by the early leader, the jousting for those vital points from the minor positions was worthy of a major meeting on its own, while there were no major incidents the battles were intense and crowd pleasing. The competitors deserve recognition for the clean, tight and close racing that kept the punters entertained from one heat to the next.
Pool One was dominated by Parker/Rudloff undefeated on 12 points and Plaisted/Harrison 11 points, both teams are serious contenders for the title on tonight’s form, while team Sewell and the brother and sister team of Ricky and Kim Laycock both on 9 points where consistent, while current Aust 2 Stuart Firth annexed the final qualifying spot with a struggling 7 points.
Pool Two
was a lot tighter points wise, with Taylor/Oliver on 11 points, just ahead of
Bottrell/Pitt, Pym/Brown, and Aldridge/Aldridge all on 10, with elder statesman
Wayne Munck and Shelly Warnes taking the 5th qualifying spot with 9 points.
Taylor's only defeat came in his first ride when he lead for three and a three
quarter laps only to see Aldridge fly around the outside exiting turn 4.
Overall a excellent nights racing with only more to come from the main event.
The 16
Championship Riders in Race number order:
1/ Mick Headland, 2/ Stuart Firth, 3/ Gary Moon, 4/
Byren Gates,
5/ Grant Bond, 6/ Chris Pym, 7/ Bill Sewell, 8/ Ron
Parker,
9/ Dave Bottrell, 10/ Wayne Munck, 11/ Jason
Aldridge,
12/ Ricky Laycock, 13/ Darrin Treloar, 14/ Mark
Plaisted,
15/ Scott Christopher, 16/ Steve Taylor,
Treloar Triumphs Title 007
2007 Rising Sun Honda
Australian
Speedway Sidecar Championship
******Night Two******
Darrin Treloar/Justin Plaisted continue their reign as Australian Speedway Sidecar Champions, defending their 2006 title in a deja’ vu performance, the final with riders in starting order were: Treloar, Moon, Parker and Christopher, required a restart after a first lap incident halfway down the back straight where all 4 riders attempted to approach the entrance to turn 3 four abreast, resulting in Ronny Parker being spat out the back loosing his passenger (Shane Rudloff) and Justin Plaisted coming adrift from Darrin but retaining a vice like grip on the back as if riding a bucking bull at a rodeo. The red light came on and there was a hush until the announcement was made, all four back in.
Take Two
All four charged into turns one and two with Treloar a slight leader with Moon up high, Christopher looking on the low line and Parker having half a loose and ending all his chances of winning. Treloar edged ever so slightly away as Moon and Christopher fought hard over second place and Parker trying vainly to make up the lost ground. Moon broke clear from Christopher with just over a lap to go and set sail for Treloar, making up a fair bit of ground in the closing stages, with Parker closing up to Christopher on the final corner, however Treloar and Plaisted proved worthy winners, being highest point scorers from the heats, Moon and Duane Dennis a hard charging second, with the Christopher/Koppe combination taking the final podium position.
The Start of the night, was marred by what appeared to be a over watered track, which resulted in Mick Headland while leading on the first lap of the first heat flipping his outfit in turn 4, you might say it’s bad luck being the first heat out, but at a National title the track should be ready to go from the start, as it had been at the previous two meetings held at Pioneer Park. Maybe the referee should have ordered a track grade after Headlands flip, instead of waiting until the interval after three rounds of heats. With the heavy track early, racing was pretty pedestrian, making it hard to come from behind, tho Treloar came from the rear in his first heat with a questionable pass on the inside of Christopher, as was a incident in the previous heat with Aldridge and Bottrell. Once the track was graded the racing became sensational, with riders being able to use the entire track in the final 2 rounds of heats.
Heat points below 
Headland would have to be considered unlucky with eight points, following his first heat demise while leading.
Disappointment of the night would have to be the performance of Steve Taylor, following the hoo ha raised from down south when named as a reserve for the 2006 Nth Qld Masters, his form justified the selectors choice.
Surprise of the weekend was the form of 55-year-old Ronny Parker, great to see an old stager mixing it with the countries best
Professional Presentation by most of the 36 teams has to be commended and should make for great TV exposure when aired.