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50-608: The Australian Sidecar Championship is a speedway championship held each year to determine the Australian national champions. The event is sanctioned and run by Motorcycling Australia (MA) and is held in a different state every year. The Australian Sidecar Championship was first held in 1931 at the Melbourne Exhibition Speedway and was won by Victorian pair Les Medlycott and his passenger "Tich" Jones The 2013 Australian Speedway Sidecar Championship

100-579: A rider and a passenger competing over 4 laps on an oval shale surface. Rules are governed by the national speedway federation and are not dissimilar to conventional speedway rules. Sidecar speedway is most popular in Australia although in Great Britain it also has a strong following. Sidecar speedway events are also held in New Zealand, South Africa and United States of America. Because of

150-633: A series of rounds at different speedway tracks. The Supercup was re-established in 2008 as a one night event at Isle of Wight Speedway and was won by World Champions Darrin Treloar/Justin Plaisted . The 2010 World Championship was won by Australian father/son team Mick and Jesse Headland at the Brandon Stadium in Coventry , England on 14 August 2010. Jesse Headland substituted for his fathers regular partner Paul Waters who

200-491: A stand full of spectators, killing 15 and himself. In 1970, Jochen Rindt won the Formula One drivers' championship posthumously, the only man to do so, underlining the continuing risks associated with road racing. The tragedies highlighted the need for improved safety standards for both drivers and spectators; safety would continue to be an issue throughout the 1960s and 1970s. When motorcycle racer Gilberto Parlotti

250-473: Is also very similar to sidecar Grasstrack and many crews race both disciplines. For example, the 2007 British Sidecar Speedway Champions Gary Jackson and Carl Blyth are also regular competitors in Grasstrack racing, Jackson being a former British Grasstrack champion himself. One main difference between sidecar speedway and more conventional speedway is the rule of contact. In solo speedway, any contact

300-732: Is often the cause of controversy. Crews can also be excluded for losing their passenger. Similar rules to conventional speedway include Also in British Speedway the SCB enforce the use of dirt deflectors on the rear of the machine. Sidecar Speedway is believed to have originated in Australia and has been popular there ever since with the first Australian Championship taking place at the Exhibition Speedway in Melbourne in 1931. Ever since, sidecar speedway has been one of

350-403: Is strictly forbidden, and this rule is enforced strongly by referees . However, due to the nature of sidecar speedway outfits being much larger, contact is inevitable between machines. Although if a machine is deemed to take an advantage by 'barging' another competitor off the racing line whilst 'under power', then they may be excluded. This rule is very difficult to judge and enforce and therefore

400-577: Is the FIM Track Racing Gold Trophy. It had a troubled start, being cancelled due to rain at its Wertle venue. Since then, the event has been a success. Riders from Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and Holland have competed, though the Australian teams have dominated the events to date. Road racing Road racing's origins were centered in Western Europe and Great Britain as motor vehicles became more common in

450-680: Is the Australian Pairs title, where the best riders from each state pair up and compete against other states. The Australian Pairs championship and the 'individual' championship are usually run on the same track over consecutive days. The 2013 Australian title was run at one of Australia's premier motorcycle speedway tracks, the Gillman Speedway in Adelaide with Sydney's Darrin Treloar winning his record 7th national crown, while

500-787: The Circuit de la Sarthe circuit near the town of Le Mans , France , the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit in Belgium and the Mount Panorama Circuit in Australia. Certain European race circuits were situated in mountainous regions where the topography meant that the roads featured numerous curves and elevation changes, allowing the creation of sinuous and undulating race courses such as the Nürburgring in

550-700: The Detroit Grand Prix , and the Honda Indy Toronto . The popularity of Formula One and motorcycle Grand Prix racing led to the formation of road racing world championships for other types of vehicles. In 1953, the FIA sanctioned a world championship for sports car racing which combined the Le Mans 24 Hours, the Mille Miglia, the 12 Hours of Sebring , the 24 Hours of Spa and the 1000km of

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600-637: The Eifel mountains of Germany and the Circuit de Charade in the Chaîne des Puys in the Massif Central of France. These circuits presented such a challenge that they were both feared and respected by racers. The 20.8 km (12.9 mi) long Nurburgring with more than 300 metres (1,000 feet) of elevation change from its lowest to highest points, was nicknamed "The Green Hell" by Jackie Stewart , due to its challenging nature. The sinuous track layout of

650-710: The Indianapolis Motor Speedway , and the oval, banked speedways constructed in Europe at Monza in 1922 and at Montlhéry in 1924. Road racing on public roads was banned in Great Britain in 1925 when a spectator was injured at the Kop Hill Climb event. The Royal Automobile Club (R.A.C.) and the Auto-Cycle Union (A.C.U.) stopped issuing permits for races on public roads, a policy that has not changed to this day. Donington Park

700-944: The North West 200 and the Ulster Grand Prix . In Formula One, street circuits have made a comeback with the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit and the Baku City Circuit joining the Circuit de Monaco as part of the world championship. There are no street circuits being used in MotoGP racing. . In North America, racing on public streets takes place at the Grand Prix of Long Beach , the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg ,

750-603: The Olympic Park Speedway in Mildura on 8–9 April with NSW pair Darrin Treloar (who won his record 9th title) and Blake Cox taking the win. The 2017 Australian Championship was held at the Gillman Speedway. South Australia's Trent Headland and his British passenger Darryl Whetstone went one better than they had done in 2016 when they won their first Australian championship with Whetstone also becoming

800-641: The Targa Florio (run on 93 miles (150 km) of Sicilian roads), the 75 miles (121 km) German Kaiserpreis circuit in the Taunus mountains, the 48 miles (77 km) French circuit at Dieppe, used for the 1907 Grand Prix and, the Isle of Man TT motorcycle road circuit first used in 1907. The exceptions were the steeply banked egg-shaped near oval circuit of Brooklands in England , completed in 1906,

850-869: The 2014 event at the Loxford Park Speedway in Kurri Kurri in New South Wales saw first time winners Grant Bond and Glen Cox. The 2015 Australian championship was scheduled to be held at the Arunga Park Speedway in Alice Springs on 4 and 5 April. Sidecar speedway received a boost from the 2011/12 Australian season with the first running of the Speedway Sidecar Grand Slam series, the first of its kind in Australia. Running from October to April,

900-681: The Charade circuit caused some drivers like Jochen Rindt in the 1969 French Grand Prix to complain of motion sickness , and wear open face helmets just in case. In 1949 the FIM introduced the Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championship with the 1949 Isle of Man TT being the inaugural event. With the exception of the Monza circuit, all the Grand Prix races were held on street circuits . The Association Internationale des Automobiles Clubs Reconnus

950-518: The FIM. Another motorcycle racing incident occurred at Monza during the 1973 Italian motorcycle Grand Prix when a racing accident claimed the lives of world champion Jarno Saarinen and Renzo Pasolini . After the von Trips accident in 1961, the Monza Circuit had been lined with steel barriers as a result of demands by automobile racers. Most auto racers believed steel barriers would improve safety for auto racers and spectators, but they had

1000-627: The Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Milwaukee Mile track, or on dirt tracks using widely available horse racing circuits. Automobile dirt track racing would develop into stock car racing . American racing also branched out into drag racing . Road racing traditions in Europe, South America, Great Britain and the British Commonwealth nations grew around races held on paved, public roads such as

1050-568: The Isle of Man TT, lost their world championship status due to their considerable safety risk, their popularity continued to flourish leading to a branch of road racing known as Traditional Road Racing . Traditional road racing on closed public roads is popular in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and parts of Europe. The Duke Road Racing Rankings was established in 2002 to establish rider classifications in traditional road racing events such as

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1100-715: The Nurburgring . NASCAR held its first road race in 1957 at the Watkins Glen International circuit with Buddy Baker as the winner. The FIA launched the European Touring Car Championship in 1963. The FIA created the International Karting Commission (CIK) in 1962 and, in 1964, the first CIK Karting World Championship was won by Guido Sala . Karting has become a significant step in

1150-471: The Straight Guy' and Trent Koppe collectively aka the honda boys were crowned the first ever official World Sidecar Champions. The event was screened live on Sky Sports . Racing sidecars on speedway involves a rider and a passenger mounted on a 1000cc purpose built, three-wheeled sidecar outfit. The passenger of the machine is as much involved in the race performance as the rider. The two members of

1200-743: The Supercup Qualifier was run at King's Lynn and it sparked a new era for sidecar speedway. The 'Supercup' ran for a few years, bringing with it many sidecar stars from Australia, New Zealand, and USA. During this time, the British Sidecar Speedway Championships were made official, again another big landmark for sidecar speedway. In modern times, the Supercup has since diminished but the British Championships still run strong. They run over

1250-681: The United States was a 54-mile competition from Chicago to Evanston , Illinois and return, held on November 27, 1895. By 1905, the Gordon Bennett Cup , organized by the Automobile Club de France , was considered the most important race in the world. In 1904, the Association Internationale des Automobiles Clubs Reconnus was formed by several European automobile clubs. In 1904 the FIM created

1300-498: The country and drew large crowds of spectators. The first 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race was held in 1923. The Automobile Racing Club of America was founded in 1933 and became the Sports Car Club of America in 1944. The great majority of road races were run over a lengthy circuit of closed public roads, not purpose-built racing circuits. This was true of the Le Mans circuit of the 1906 French Grand Prix, as well as

1350-611: The development of road racers including Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton . The European Truck Racing Championship was founded in 1985. A Superbike World Championship for road-going production motorcycles was created in 1988 . As road racing grew in popularity it eventually expanded across the globe with Grand Prix road races having been held on six continents. Expansion of the Formula One and MotoGP series has resulted in many dedicated tracks being built, like in Qatar in

1400-520: The driver of the race car, 83 spectators were killed and 120 were injured. Auto racing was temporarily banned in several countries after the Le Mans disaster until safety was improved for spectators. Switzerland would not allow circuit racing until the Zürich ePrix in 2018. The Formula One championship experienced its worst tragedy during the 1961 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, when driver Wolfgang von Trips lost control of his Ferrari and crashed into

1450-575: The early 20th century. After the Second World War, automobile road races were organized into a series called the Formula One world championship sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), while motorcycle road races were organized into the Grand Prix motorcycle racing series and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). The success and popularity of road racing has seen

1500-399: The first non-Australian to win the title. Prior to 1961, multiple titles were held in the same year at different tracks over 2, 3 or 4 laps 1950 (4 lap), 1979, 1984 & 1992 - Ride-off to decide winner after tied on points 1998 Results altered at MA tribunal hearing 28 September 1998 Sidecar speedway Sidecar Speedway is a motorcycle sport involving 4 crews of

1550-609: The international cup for motorcycles. The first international motorcycle road race took place in 1905 at Dourdan , France. After disagreeing with Bennett Cup organizers over regulations limiting the number of entrants, the French automobile manufacturers responded in 1906 by organizing the first French Grand Prix race held at Le Mans. During the 1910s, the Elgin National Road Races held on public roads around Elgin, Illinois attracted competitors from around

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1600-556: The late 1950s sparked to a renewal of interest in road racing in the United States and, led to the construction of new road racing circuits such as Riverside International Raceway , Road America and Laguna Seca . The 1964 United States motorcycle Grand Prix was held at the Daytona International Speedway and led to increased international prominence for the Daytona 200 road race which peaked in 1974 with

1650-857: The most popular categories in Australian speedway at both capital city tracks such as the Sydney Showground Speedway , Brisbane Exhibition Ground , Rowley Park Speedway and the Claremont Speedway , while country tracks such as the Broken Hill Speedway , Olympic Park in Mildura and the Riverview Speedway in Murray Bridge have involved sidecars since the 1940s. Motorcycling Australia have also allowed riders from England to compete but no recent success has been recorded. Another big event

1700-432: The nature of the sports hotbeds being spread so wide across the globe, organising an official World Championship has been an arduous task, though in 2006 the first successful Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme World Track Racing Sidecar Championships (Sidecar Gold Cup) were held at Isle of Wight Speedway stadium. Queenslanders Scott Christopher aka Carson, whom most recognise as the leading host of 'Queer Eye for

1750-769: The number of safety personnel required. These changes saw a dramatic decrease in deaths and accidents. By the 1980s, motorcycle Grand Prix and the Formula One races were held on purpose built race circuits with the exception of the Monaco Grand Prix held on the city streets of Monaco. Street circuits such as the Montjuïc circuit and the Opatija Circuit with their numerous unmovable roadside obstacles, such as trees, stone walls, lampposts and buildings, were gradually removed from world championship competition. Although events held on closed public roads such as

1800-435: The opposite effect for motorcyclists and proved fatal for Saarinen and Pasolini. The dangers of street circuits was further exposed at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix held on the twisty, tree-lined Montjuich circuit in Barcelona. The racing drivers found that the circuit's safety barriers had been shoddily installed and threatened to strike if the barriers were not brought up to standard. Under pressure from race organizers,

1850-651: The race was started only to be stopped after 29 laps when the car of Rolf Stommelen plowed into the crowd, killing four spectators. By the late 1970s, the popularity of Grand Prix road racing attracted corporate sponsors and lucrative television contracts which, led to an increased level of professionalism. Road racers organized to demand that stricter safety regulations be adopted by sanctioning bodies in relation to race track safety and race organizers requirements. Race circuits that had originally been public roads were widened and modified to include chicanes and run-off areas while, some circuits were shortened to reduce

1900-603: The right hand side of the outfit. Sidecar speedway is much less popular than conventional speedway, though by no means less spectacular (in a survey of speedway fans taken during the 1970s, Sidecars were actually voted as the most popular class – which included car racing – in Australian speedway). Like conventional speedway, the machines are equipped with no brakes or traction control systems. However, they are powered by huge 1000cc engines, taken from roadrace superbikes . Therefore, power output can be anything up to 180 bhp and top speeds can reach up to 80 mph. Sidecar speedway

1950-436: The series included such riders as Treloar, 5 times Australian champions Glenn O'Brien from Western Australia , as well as the 2011 World Champions Mick Headland and his partner, former champion (2009) Paul Waters. The seven round 2013/14 Sidecar Grand Slam series concluded on 22 March 2014 at Gillman, with British Champions Mark Cossar and Darryl Whetstone winning the night, but Darrin Treloar and passenger (swinger) Blake Cox won

2000-430: The series. In the UK, sidecar speedway has had more of a troubled upbringing. In the early 1990s the 'World Of Rebels' series was run, involving sidecars from England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. This event eventually died out, with cost of travel and track wear being fingered as problems. A British Championship was run at Coventry Speedway every year, mostly involving Grasstrack machines. However, in 2000,

2050-431: The sidecar crew work in unison to ride the outfit as best they can. Speedway circuits are a loose shale surface and therefore traction is all important. The passenger plays a major part in controlling the amount of traction being created on the rear wheel. He does so by moving his weight forwards, backwards and sideways (either into or out of the machine). The outfit only ever turns right so the passenger only finds himself on

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2100-415: The sport spread across the globe with Grand Prix road races having been held on six continents. Other variations of road racing include; open-wheel racing , sports car racing , touring car racing , stock car racing , superbike racing , truck racing , kart racing and endurance racing . The first organized automobile race was held on July 22, 1894, from Paris to Rouen , France. The first held in

2150-422: The victory by 15-time world champion Giacomo Agostini . The dangers associated with the increasing speeds at road races were highlighted by the 1955 Le Mans disaster . With spectators seated near the edges of the circuit, two race cars came into contact causing one of the vehicles to crash into the embankment, where it exploded in a ball of flames and then plowed through the crowd of spectators. In addition to

2200-445: The years. Notable exceptions are the Mille Miglia which was allowed to continue until 1957 and, the Pau Grand Prix which has been held on the city streets of Pau, France since 1933. After the First World War, automobile and motorcycle road racing competitions in Europe and in North America went in different directions. Automobile and motorcycle racing in the United States was typically oval track racing on paved tracks such as

2250-399: Was held at the Arunga Park Speedway in Alice Springs on 4–5 April. It was the first time the 402 metres (440 yards) speedway has hosted the championship since 1985. South Australian pair Justin Plaisted and Sam Harrison won the title. For Plaisted, who had won the championship three times as a passenger with Darrin Treloar, it was his first win as a rider. The 2016 championship was held at

2300-535: Was held at the Gillman Speedway in Adelaide , South Australia , and was won by Darrin Treloar (NSW) and his Victorian swinger Simon Cohrs. It was a record 7th Australian Championship win for Treloar, while for Cohrs it was his second win. The 2014 Australian Championship was held at the Loxford Park Speedway in Kurri Kurri , New South Wales , on 28–29 March. Darrin Treloar (NSW) won his 8th Australian Championship, his new passenger Blake Cox scored his first win of this championship. The 2015 Australian Championship

2350-430: Was killed while competing in the 1972 Isle of Man TT , it sparked a rider's boycott of the event led by multi-time world champion, Giacomo Agostini , a close friend of Parlotti. Once the most prestigious race of the year, the event was increasingly boycotted by the top riders, and in 1976, the Isle of Man TT finally succumbed to pressure for increased safety in racing events and had its world championship status revoked by

2400-407: Was renamed the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile in 1946 and, plans were developed for a road racing world championship. In 1950 , the FIA created the Formula One world championship, a competition of seven rounds that included the Indianapolis 500. A Formula I manufacturers' championship was begun in 1955. The success of American racers such as Phil Hill and Dan Gurney in Formula One in

2450-461: Was still recovering from injuries sustained earlier in the year in New Zealand. Mick Headland was the defending World Champion having won the 2009 title in France with Waters. The 2011 World Sidecar Speedway Championship took place on 12 November 2011 at the 360m long Riverview Speedway in Murray Bridge in South Australia with Darrin Treloar and Murray Bridge's own Jesse Headland taking the title. The other major event in world sidecar speedway

2500-402: Was the first permanent park circuit in the United Kingdom and held its first motorcycle race in 1931. As automobile and motorcycle technology improved, racers began to achieve higher speeds that caused an increasing number of accidents on roads not designed for motorized vehicles. Public safety concerns ultimately caused the number of road racing events on public roads in Europe to decrease over

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