Tim, did ya get to join the crowd here . 
Looks like it was a hoot.
Alison photos in vintage track forum.
Mark Mitchell and Tom Golding, from Birdwood in South Australia, were crowned the 2009 Australian Sidecar Champions following a massive weekend of racing which culminated in a most thrilling Championship Final at Mildura’s Olympic Park Speedway on Sunday night.
A very calculated performance saw the Mitchell / Golding team progress ever closer to the final with every heat, until a race win in their very last heat put them on top of the points stack to enable them to qualify first to the final - on countback - over defending Champions Darrin Treloar and Justin Plaisted, who they eventually defeated to capture their first ever Australian Championship.
The last two events on the program were the finest of the weekend, but the standard of the two night’s racing overall was amazing, exciting and enthralled the huge crowd in attendance.
For the Championship Final, both Treloar and Mitchell scored fourteen points with the Broken Hill pair, Rick Howse and Adam Commons, taking the third qualification position on countback from Mick Headland and Paul Waters, both of whom had scored twelve points.
The repecharge final, from where one team only would survive to then become the fourth and last team into the Championship Final, was a wonderful race, with Mick Headland / Paul Waters listed as top qualifier with twelve points.
One point back, on eleven points, was the Queensland pair of Scott Christopher and Trent Koppe.
Last team into the repercharge was Jason Aldridge and Duane Dennis, also from Queensland.
The repecharge was an enthralling event with three sidecars travelling side by side for most of the first lap.
Headland had best use of the inside start, but Christopher was working hard trying to get to a dominant position, with Bond and Aldridge still right beside.
Bikes were three wide into turn three, but by then, Christopher edged his front wheel slightly to advantage over Headland and by laps end was just in front.
Christopher and Koppe maintained their lead, but Headland and Waters threw everything at the Queensland pair for the reminder of the race.
Bond and Aldridge were having a private battle just a few metres to the rear and in lap three Bond was able to move clear and finished the repecharge behind Headland in third place giving them fifth and sixth place in the Title - with Aldridge coming home fourth, for seventh overall.
Tension ran high for most of the night as many riders could see opportunities opening and closing before their eyes, as far as their individual Championship chances progressed or otherwise, and there were many excellent heats during the course of the two nights racing.
The Championship final was to be an even more torrid affair with Mitchell and Golding getting away well for a first lap lead, with Treloar, Christopher and Howse just behind.
After a collision between the leading racers, the Final eventually resumed again in a race where Mitchell and Golding got the best start and were never headed.
Treloar tried all he knew but was not able to peg back the lightweight SA combination, who were now very focused on the goal which confronted them.
Howse and Commons too, could make no impression on the two leaders, leaving Mitchell and Golding to just continue on to the biggest prize of their short Sidecar career.
The crowd response to the Mitchell and Golding win was massive, humbling both winners, as the huge crowd had witnessed one of the best ever Australian Sidecar Championships and many were thrilled that the Title was going to South Australia for the first time in over three decades.
In their Title acceptance speech, both Mitchell and Golding were still coming to terms with the greatness they had just achieved and were most gracious in their praise of family, business and colleagues who had helped in their preparation of this Title assault.
Mitchell paid particular tribute to his father, Bill, who with Darrin Treloar’s father, Gary, had won the Australian Best Pairs Championship at the Sydney Showground in 1976.
Three generations of Mitchells have been, or are now involved in Sidecar racing, as the younger Mitchell’s are racing in Junior Sidecars.
