Post sport Champions keep it in the family
Champions keep it in the family
DYNASTY: Tom Pearce and Denny Cox in action. By STEPHEN BISSET
WITH both teenagers coming from families with a long-standing association with sidecar racing, Belmont’s Tom Pearce and
Boolaroo’s Denny Cox were always going to give their fellow racers a run for their money. The pair went a long way to further cementing their family’s dynasty status after taking out top honours in the under 16s Speedway Sidecar Australian championships at Kurri Speedway.
Competing against the nation’s top junior speedway sidecar riders, Pearce and Cox, who are rider and passenger respectively, got off to a great start in the heats, winning three of the four races, placing them second overall and booking a place in the A fi nal. Tom said he and Denny were ecstatic with their checkered fl ag, which had exceeded all expectations going into the event. “We defi nitely didn’t expect to win and, in
the fi nal I don’t think anyone expected us to win because we were up against a team (Jake Mitchell and Dakota Ballantyne) who had been undefeated all day,” he said.
Denny added that it was a chance collision
at the head of the back that provided the boost the duo needed to get into prime position to clinch the title. “We got off to a pretty slow start but then there was a crash and we used that chance to move up on the inside and get ahead,” he said.
For the pair, it was like a dream come true
when they fi nally crossed the fi nish line as champions.
“It was just crazy,” Tom said.
“Before we knew that we had even won, pretty much everyone there had surrounded us and we were thrown into the air – it was great.” Tom represents the third generation of sidecar champions in the family with his father Brett Pearce taking out the Dirt Track Australian titles in 2006 and grandfather Jack winning multiple dirt track and sidecar titles in the 1960s and 1970s. Denny’s pedigree is just as impressive, with his father Glen Cox ranked number three in the world for speedway sidecars. “We’re all absolutely ecstatic for the boys,” Mr Cox said.
“It was just such a proud moment for me to see them fi nish fi rst.”
48 THE NEWCASTLE POST Wednesday, January 25, 2012
view the digital edition online at
www.newcastlepost.com.au
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