BigFatDave Posted November 3, 2011 Report Share Posted November 3, 2011 Thanks to Martyn from Australian Speedway Forum: A fine field of Solo stars will be on the card at Mildura’s Olympic Park this Saturday night when the Mildura Speedway season opens in earnest. A great field of Sidecars too, will explode onto the track; to start off hostilities in the right vein in a meeting which will have great interest for Sunraysia speedway fans. Both solos and sidecars will be very competitive and the format to be used on the night will showcase that competitiveness. A “new look” race track, with resplendent, freshly painted new fence panels, will greet all competitors, in what will be a fascinating start to the Mildura season. Improvements are always on the Olympic Park agenda, with the fence being part of the constant refurbishment. Further plans are afoot to continually upgrade the facilities, as the Club progresses a master plan for change. The turn out on Saturday will include twelve top sidecars, which include the top line up from Mildura with Byren Gates, Jason Bradshaw and Wazza Monson heading the bill. The top three will be combined with Chris Holmes, Clint Mayes, Dale Milner and Simon Cohrs, along for good measure. Visitors will include Broken Hill Star, Ricky Stephens and from Albury, Lindsay McGregor, as well as Adelaide’s Tim Bichard and Aaron Silvy also with former local Rob Patterson, who is back in Mildura for a spell. The three wheeled brigade will line up in a round robin test, where each team will be trying to gain as many points as possible to get them through to an all important semi final and a cut throat Final on the night. Track space will be at a premium, especially at turn one of lap one, where all riders seem to want to have their front wheel on such a tiny piece of territory. Passengers have been swapped temporarily, in some cases; most notable being Mick Powell, who is replacing Byren Gates’ regular swinger, Mick O’Loughlin and Dale Knights who will swing with Tim Bichard. Amongst those more settled combinations are Jason Bradshaw / Steve Behsmann, Chris Holmes / Neale Hancock, Warren Monson / Deven Gates, Dale Milner / Jamie Knudsen, Clint Mayes / Andrew Summerhayes as well as the Cohrs brothers, Simon and Mark, who will flash out the new kevlars this week. A sharp and most colourful design will attract even more attention to the usually humble team leader, Simon, who, since his success with Adelaide’s Chris Pascoe at last years Australian Championships at Gillman, has realised that he is a serious contender whether steering his machine locally or swinging with Pascoe as part of the Sidecar Grand Slam circus as it travels around Australia. The Sidecar Grand Slam will come to Mildura on Saturday 14th January 2012, right at the peak of Mildura’s season. Solo action will be among a most even field where we will see the Sedgmen brothers, Ryan and Justin, Brenton Barnfield, Brock Gates and Chris Ferguson riding hard against each other. Justin Sedgmen returned home from England about four weeks ago and has settled into his local regular work, however he will be looking to sharpen his skills after the “freshen up” time he has had, as he will want to do well in the 2012 Australian Championships series, which will be held during the second half of January. It is pleasing to see such a competitive field of solos in action so early in the season, with some more locals expected to front the tapes at the Victorian Solo Title, which will be held in Mildura on the 3rd December. It is understood that those locals yet to return, will ride in the Victorian Title meeting, which Sunraysia patrons will look forward to with some delight. The biggest and hottest news for Sunraysia speedway patrons however, is that the next meeting which will be held at Olympic Park will be a fully fledged International Sidecar Challenge meeting, which will take the form of a “Four team tournament”. Four teams of Sidecars, each with four machines apiece, will contest the Mildura Sidecar Four Team Challenge on WEDNESDAY 16th November. The meeting is being staged at Olympic Park on a Wednesday, just four days after the 2012 World Sidecar Speedway Championship is held at Murray Bridge on Saturday 12th November. The Wednesday meeting allows the International guys to travel and get a second meeting in the week. Club President, Gavin Sedgmen said, ”We know that Mildura fans will turn out, even for a mid week event, as locals understand that the Club is always looking to be innovative and opportune with its promotions. Sunraysia speedway folk know that the Club will always try to put on a show at the best available time”. Sedgmen added, “This is the only available time for an International Sidecar meeting – and patrons will be excited to see how the Mildura boys go against such talented competition from overseas”. The four teams to contest the Challenge will be representing England and New Zealand, with a team representing Australia all racing against a team all from Mildura. An International permit has been granted for the meeting, which delights the Mildura Club as the meeting will fulfill the dreams of many of the International Sidecar stars who have always wanted to ride on the tight and tricky Olympic Park circuit. All four teams who will ride for NZ and England will be engaged in the Murray Bridge meeting. Our Club has been gratefully assisted by both Mick Headland and Mark Mitchell, who are great supporters of Olympic Park and have been working with Mildura Club officials behind the scenes to make the meeting come to fruition. The four team tournament format will give Sunraysia fans a great look at all the International stars as well as the guys who will represent both Australia and Mildura. It will be a great feather in the cap of Mildura when local fans will be able to measure the strength of Mildura’s home based riders against the very best in the World. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vicar Posted November 8, 2011 Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Any results of solo's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFatDave Posted November 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2011 Any results of solo's? Apparently the night was a bit of a disaster, Vicar - a power failure across a quarter of Mildura early on in the piece meant everything was called off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazysue Posted December 3, 2011 Report Share Posted December 3, 2011 It is pleasing to see such a competitive field of solos in action so early in the season, with some more locals expected to front the tapes at the Victorian Solo Title, which will be held in Mildura on the 3rd December. It is understood that those locals yet to return, will ride in the Victorian Title meeting, which Sunraysia patrons will look forward to with some delight. Currently being covered on http://speedwayupdates.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=aus&thread=9789&page=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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