Sports News Sunraysia with Sammy Smythe

                                                                By Home Stright 

Mildura’s speedway season will get underway this Saturday night when the best of Australia’s Sidecars come to Olympic Park to battle for the Derek Lynd Memorial Trophy.

Reading as a “who’s who” of Sidecar racing, this meeting will pay fitting tribute to the late Derek Lynd, father of 1989 Australian Sidecar Title contender, Deon Lynd, who regards Olympic Park, Mildura, as his home track, as he claims that he was made feel most welcome in every visit to Olympic Park and that the Mildura Club was a Club who always provided great track conditions for riders.

Newly crowned “Aussie One”, Justin Plaisted and Sam Harrison will have their first hit out since winning the National Title in Alice Springs  over last Easter.

This win was Plaisted’s first win as the rider, after he won previously as a passenger with the great Darrin Treloar, who, with passenger, Blake Cox, will also be in the field to pay tribute to the Lynd family.

Joining Plaisted and Treloar will be dual World Champions, Mick and Jesse Headland and 2009 Australian Champion, Mark Mitchell, now with Dale Knights alongside and another dozen top contenders, all vying to win the “Pewter Mugs”.

Local stars, Byren Gates and Mick O’Loughlin will head a strong local contingent which includes, Neale and George Hancock, Chris Dess / Brenton Kerr and Dale Milner with Nick O’Brien.

Riders from Adelaide include Shane and Angus Rudloff, Damien Neische / Mitch Spear, Klae Hobbs / Jack Spear, Aaron Silvy / Adam Pascoe, Dean Hobbs / Andy Westover along with Tim Bichard / Anthony Schultz, while regulars to Mildura are Steve Radford, with local lad, Blake Halls on side, with Mark Radford / Chris Walker, who make the journey from Melbourne for every meeting.

Sidecar riders will be keen to use every opportunity to spend “race time” on the Olympic Park circuit this year as the Mildura Club will host the 2016 Australian Sidecar Championship on April 8th and 9th 2016.

Mildura patrons will see the very best riders in the land over a number of first class Open, State, National and International meetings to be held this season. Riders will want to establish ascendancy over each other, so meetings like the Derek Lynd Memorial will be contested right down to the last heat and then, look out for the Final.

Spectators will be keen to see the format for this meeting where all riders will take five heat rides, with the top four point scorers then selecting their gates for the monster Derek Lynd Memorial Final.

There will be some great contests right through the field especially where 9 times Australian Champion, Darrin Treloar will be keen to take the Lynd Memorial, as will Olympic Park hotshots, Mick and Jesse Headland. The new Australian Champion, Justin Plaisted will also want to follow his great friendship with Deon Lynd to take the Trophy in memory of Deon’s dad. Treloar will want to negate his rotten bad luck from Alice Springs, where he increased his lead in every lap of the final, only to see his engine let go within sight of the finish line and another Championship.

Locals, Byro Gates and the effervescent Micky O, will be keen to start the new season as they finished the old season in great form and former Aussie One, Mark Mitchell, will want to start afresh with some good performances and a Trophy meeting such as this will provide the deep thinking Mitchell, with every opportunity for success.

The father and son combinations of the Hancocks and the Rudloffs, along with the Headlands will wish to start the season on a good note too, making every post a winner. Both Neale Hancock and Shane Rudloff have had much experience, like Justin Plaisted, in being good passengers long before they took to the throttle.

Passenger experience has always been a good teacher for any rider.

The middle of the field is exceptionally strong, with a solid contingent coming from Adelaide and Melbourne to race against the strong mids of Mildura where Chris Dess, and Dale Milner will all want to get away to a good season start.

 Hobbs, both Dean and Klae, Niesche, Silvy, both Radfords, Mark and Steve, Bichard and the family groups are all great competitors, who, with just a smidgeon of luck could feature in the Lynd Memorial Final.

Nostalgia is also on the agenda with Deon Lynd himself preparing a machine to ride against four times Australian Champions, Andrew Cleave and Dave Power, who were one of the most formidable Sidecar teams in the country from the 1980’s into the 2000’s.

Lynd is so much looking forward to competing against his mate and old foe, but both are keen to keep themselves tidy, but Sunraysia patrons know, that when Andrew Cleave is on the track with a throttle in his hand, then anything is possible.

And excellent support / Reserve class is named for the meeting too with the new generation of Olympic Park riders in action in races amongst themselves as a “B” grade, but also making themselves ready for call up to the top level should they be required.

Nathan Cock / Kane McMahon, Chris Wakefield / Jason Pinnuck and Brendan Johnson, with partner, Hannah Holmes on the side, demonstrate a great future for three wheeled racing.

They will be joined by Melbourne’s Steve Radford, who has local youngster Blake Halls as passenger. This will be a hotly contested grade, with all riders keen to show Mildura officials their credentials for the future.

Further support will come from an enthusiastic field of Classics, where we will see Greg Griffiths and son, Nathan McFadden coming down from Sydney to race against Simon Cohrs / Reece Farr, Chris Wakefield / Jason Pinnuck, Rod Gebhart, and the Broken Hill evergreen, Rob Kemp and Peter Harvy. The battle will again be on between the two Suzuki 750cc “Water Bottles” of Kemp and Griffiths, who will have their 2 stroke machines tapped right out. They will be kept honest by the four stroke power of Cohrs, Radford and Gebhart.

Olympic Park gates will open at 5:00pm, with the Junior Program set to commence at 6:00pm, to be immediately followed by the Senior program, which will see racing commence at 7:30pm sharp.

Free Grandstand accommodation is available at the full catered Olympic Park and patrons are reminded that there must be No BYO by Law,