Events
•
S
idecar Championship A
t
The O
range County Fair
Matherson
&Leeder
the leaders
By Elaine Jones
COSTAMESA, CA, JULY9
ill Matherson and Dale Leed er captured th e Sid ecar Ch ampionship
on the opening night of the Oran ge
County Fair in Costa Mesa bef or e a n
enthusiastic crowd of fans. The format
was a simp le one: three rounds of heat
races, with th e top four in p oints
advancing to the main, and the second
four to th e co nsi. The p oints ea rned
were thr ee-two-one-zero.
In the first round, the first heat had the
gate go to Steve Morrow and Chris Chapma n as they br oke fro m th e p ole a nd
were the first to the corner. John Math erson and Jam es Eilan d, the other half of
the Mission Yamaha team, were off second, but as they came ou t of four, they
were moved off the groove by Bob Brayton and Dwayne King. They would finish
in that order. The final team of Scott Cole
and Leya Cravens, the only male/female
team raci n g, had bike prob lems and
became specta tors in the infield.
In th e second heat , Matherson a nd
Leeder cut the best ga te and were go ne.
Alan Hall and Chris Jones were a close
second, which speaks well for this team ,
as Jon es repl aces an injured Dirk Votaw
and this was their first time ou t. Third
w e nt to Jo e Pe tr ag a lov ic and M ike
Mo reno. Petragalovic has not ra ced in
ove r th ree yea rs, and Mor eno usuall y
swings wit h Jeff Carr.
The fina l hea t saw the Du cat i-powered bike of Stua r t Glas s an d Deion
Stokes in the lead . This hyb rid bike uses
a car tire for a rear w heel and looks as if
it co u ld be used as a dra g bik e. Dav e
Stephens and Jeff Medberry, an other
"new" team , we re wo rking out the bu gs
and we nt out second bu t we re passed on
the last lap by Mike Gilmour and Foster.
Brayton and Kin g started off ro u nd
two with a perfect race, lead ing from start
to finish. Cole and Cravens made an awesome pass ou t of four on the whi te-flag
lap to take second over Glass and Stokes.
B
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