It's taken a while to get around Queensland's capricious summer weather, but the North Brisbane JMCC finally managed it, and the Queensland Sidecar Championships have finally been run and won.
Ash Smith takes up the story.
After three long years, the wait is over – we finally have a Queensland Sidecar Champion! It has been a rough few years for the sidecar fraternity as rain out after rain out occurred at the Queensland Championships, however the weather gods were smiling down on North Brisbane JMCC on Saturday as Queensland’s best took the track.
In a hotly contested field, the cream rose to the top early on with Brodie Cohen/Damien Egan and Jamie Moohan/Bayley Ogilvie dominating the heat points. Surprise packet Antony Schofield also made it through to the semi-finals with ease.
Semi-final one saw Jamie Moohan and Samuel Harrison see off the efforts of Stuart Firth and Dave Bottrell and Semi Final 2 saw Hamish Golding take the chequered flag from Cohen and Joel Eaton. Unfortunately, Schofields night came to an end with an exploded tyre in the semi’s.
With Cohen riding the best he ever has around the Mick Doohan raceway, you could've thrown your money on him to win the final, however a yellow helmet colour following second place in Semi Final 2 was always going to be tricky. From the gate it was Golding who held a good line with Cohen going for the inside pass up underneath coming out of bend two but Golding held the line which left Cohen in no mans land on the inside grabbing no traction at all. It was Golding who managed to sneak ahead of the Cohen outfit with Moohan in third and Harrison taking 4th spot. All in all, it was a fantastic meeting run by the North Brisbane JMCC in conjunction with the amazing efforts of Joel Eaton to get the meeting on.
The next big one for our Queensland sidecar riders will be one last chance to practice at Pioneer Park speedway on March 16th in the Speedway Summer Slam before the Australian Sidecar Championships on Easter Saturday/Sunday (20/21st) April 2019. This is going to be one HUGE weekend as the North Queensland Speedway Riders and Supporters Club will be hosting the event in front of thousands of dedicated speedway fans in the Burdekin. Publicity officer for the club, Ashleigh Smith, said "We had a healthy crowd of 5000 people at our 2018 Gary Moon Memorial which is our largest sidecar meeting every year so I can't wait to see the flood of people in for the Australian Championships". "We have already had interest from Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales so we can't wait to see some spectacular racing from Australia's best".