Dwight defending sidecar title

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33408, 14 December 1973, Page 20

Dwight defending sidecar title

The 53 - year - old Christchurch rider. Les Dwight sen., will be the man to beat in the New Zealand speedway sidecar championship at Templeton’s Pall Mall Speedway on Saturday night. Dwight won the title for the first time at Hamilton last season with a spirited display which left his younger rivals well behind. Soon after he showed that this was no; isolated effort by winning the New Zealand sidecar grass track title at Dunedin. His passenger in the speedway championship was G. Pullen, whose ability to place his weight in the right place at the right time was of tre-j

mendous value. He will again’ . be in the chair of Dwight’s’ ’ powerful 1000 c.c. v-twin Vin- : cent outfit. Dwight showed no diminishing in his powers during the recent test series against ! Australia and his performances contributed much toi wards New Zealand’s over-all ! success. •! One of his chief rivals on! J Saturday will be his son. Les! [lDwight jun., who was also in j •:the New Zealand team. He ■'rides a similar Vincent mai chine and will have G. Cox , as his passenger. However. the greatest . threat to Dwight sen. is ex- • pected to come from the cap- . tain of the Australian test : team, D. Tyerman. > He was unbeaten in the • ithree heats of the final test;

!at Wellington on Saturday and is now clearly in top form. A former New South Wales champion, he has already finished runner-up in the New Zealand championship, in 1967 and again in 1970, and is very determined to win this time. His passenger will be J. Henderson and his machine ja supercharged Triumph. ! The two other members of I the Australian test team. P. iMcCurtayne and G. Trealor, j will also . be racing in the ! championship. Trealor, especially, should be prominent. He showed a liking for the Templeton track when he raced there a fortnight ago. The two back-markers from Auckland, D. Tomkins and W. Buckley, have also entered. ! Tomkins has won the title

' several times. He will ride a > I supercharged Triumph. Buckidey rides a Vincent. ■I The Ashburton rider, I. i Begbie, cannot be dis- ■ ; counted. His performances i have been a little inconsistent 1 but he had the Templeton I track record as testimony to Jhis capabilities. » Scoring for the championship will be different from f; usual. There will be two qualifying races and the first two place-getters from these ’ will automatically gain pas--1 sage through to the three championship heats proper. »| The third, fourth and fifth i place-getters will go into a Jrepecharge event from which > the top two will also qualify . for the championship heats. . Points in the three final heats ijwill be on a 4,3, 2, 1 basis