The Australian Sidecar Championship Round 2, Winton Raceway

Australian Sidecar Championship

Round two of the Australian Sidecar Championship was run on the weekend of the 16-17th July at Victoria’s Winton Raceway. After round one at Phillip Island, Paul Jacobs/Steve Bonney led the championship with 69 points after both Shane Soutar/Jeff Rowe and Andre Bosman/Dave Kellett both suffered DNFs. The meeting was run by Preston Motorcycle Club and was part of the Victorian Road Racing Championships.

With 11 Formula 1 and 2 Formula 2 sidecars, the numbers were similar to round one, but with notable differences, including the return to Australian Championship level racing of Mick Alton/Mark Patterson and the return to road racing of 2008 Sidecar Speedway World Champions Darrin Treloar/Justin Plaisted on the 2002 World Championship winning Windle.

Being the middle of winter and Winton being only one hour from Victoria’s snowfields it was always going to be cold, and the morning frosts were only just clearing when the first classes hit the track. The Friday practice saw most teams circulating rather cautiously as the Australian titles had not been there since 2006 and some had not been there for an even longer time. Justin Plaisted tested the air fence in turn two after missing a hand hold on the fast change from turn one, but was uninjured and was back for the next session.

Saturday morning was an even heavier frost, but it was clear by the time the sidecars hit the track for their one and only qualifying session, with Shane Soutar/Jeff Rowe unsurprisingly on pole, but Treloar/Plaisted a surprise second and Jacobs/Bonney third.

The first race in the afternoon got underway with the front row making good starts, but both LCRs on the second row were swamped by the short bikes from the third row, Andre Bosman, trying to make up for his bad start, then locked up his wheels going into turn one and sailed off into the grass, luckily missing everyone by inches, and rejoined about 80 metres along after the others had long gone. Soutar regained the lead on the first lap and was never headed after that, taking the win from Treloar with Jacobs taking third and the fastest lap of the race.

Sunday was warmer and with less frost, and warm ups were completed without incident. Race two saw less action on the start with everyone still in formation in turn one, but Treloar soon showing pace equal to Soutar, with the two swapping places until Soutar’s Suzuki engine expired on the fifth lap. Jacobs, held up by Bosman in the early laps took second, nine seconds down, with Jeff Brown/Darren Sheldrick third.

With a replacement engine installed, Soutar was ready by the final race, but Treloar now had settled in and was never headed, taking not only the win, but the lap record, with a best of 1:30.056, beating Stacey Sellar’s record from 2006. Soutar, without his best engine, finished second, seven seconds back and Paul Jacobs, recovering from a bad start worked his way back from sixth on the first lap, to take third place.

The Championship standings are

1.    Paul Jacobs/Steve Bonney – LCR Suzuki – 131

2.    Jeff Brown/Darren Sheldrick – Kellett/Yamaha – 112

3.    Shane Soutar/Jeff Rowe – LCR Suzuki – 97

4.    Chris Pym/Matt Johnston – PC Suzuki – 93

5.    Dwight Beare/Noel Beare – Alvin Suzuki – 90

6.    Duncan Rogers/Rod Bell – LCR Suzuki – 80

7.    Darrin Treloar/Justin Plaisted – Windle Suzuki – 72

8.    Andre Bosman/Dave Kellett – LCR Suzuki -71

9.    Justin Foot/Melissa Foot –BME Suzuki – 59

10.   Jason James/Brett James – Suzuki – 56

Full results at: computime.com.au