Turner/Fleming grab Aussie sidecar longtrack crown

Jim Turner and his passenger Darren Fleming made it a back to back win on the weekend securing the Australian Long Track title at Bathurst, NSW Australai for 2003 and in doing so secured their place as Australia's most formidable sidecar team.

Panorama Motorcycle Club presented a program of over eighty events including solos, speedway and dirt rack sidecars, and the Harley v Triumph Challenge providing an afternoon and evening of long track action for the capacity crowd.

The sidecar division included the rider passenger combinations of Stuart Firth/Steve Chivers, Chris Pym/Mick Lillis, Mick Saunders/Clarissa Saunders, Steve Houston/Brian Young, Murray Fyfe/Glen Cox and Mick Farrel/Mark Strachan all hoping to wrestle the title from Turner and Fleming's grasp.

In Turners first race he took out a convincing win over Chris Pym with a race time of 1.19/72 over 3 laps on the 800 metre track. In Firths first race he took out a win against Steve Houston with a race time of 1.17/50. 'I knew then that Darren and I had a battle on our hands against Firth. He was riding really well and with that race time for his first race he basically set a real challenge for us to meet'

The duelling between Firth and Turner continued over all their heats as the race times got lower and lower and the pressure got higher for the final. Disaster struck for Firth in his third heat when he was beaten home by Chris Pym after having some problems on the start.