The final round of the 2025 Australian Road Race Sidecar Championship has been run and won at Carco.com.au Raceway (formerly Barbagallo/Wanneroo) in what was one of the best run and popular meetings the team have ever attended.

We were treated to great weather all weekend and busy pits with lots of familiar faces making the trip West. A field of 17 sidecars had entered, making for some great racing opportunities wherever you found yourself on the grid.

This was the first time the lads had ever travelled west and seen the track, so luckily some locals were kind enough to pass on GoPro videos so they could at least get an understanding of where the track went. Unpacking in the pits, with our names on placards above the garage, you could tell that lots of time and effort had been put into the meeting by the local WA Sidecar Club.

After a big day of practice and qualifying, the boys found themselves ninth on the combined F1 and F2 grid, which was second place behind Mick Alton/Dave Rumble in terms of F2s, with Chrissie Clancy/Amanda Williams just behind us. There were about four or five sidecars you could throw a blanket over all doing 1m.08ish laps, so racing was going to be tight!

Sunday rolled around and the boys made the most of two short practice sessions in the morning before race 1. In the first race, after an average start, the team managed to find some place in the eight-lap race and clear from a chasing pack but not enough to catch Mick/Dave.

Race 2 rolled around quickly, as the day got hotter, and the lads were keen to push that bit harder. After around five laps, they had Mick/Dave in their sights who were having their own battle with an F1 team. Then, taking the final corner in a lower gear than normal, all of a sudden the bike lost all drive. Leonard was onto it pretty quick and flagged his hand to avoid any nasty accidents down the straight. Luckily, Royce managed to coast the bike to the end of the pit wall and crack a uey into the exit chute.

On first inspection, after pushing it back to the pits which got us sweating, we thought it was just a chain. However, on closer inspection after taking the lid off the sidecar, we realised we didn’t have a sprocket and the carrier had sheered clean off. Once Morgan Marshall finished the race, he popped by our shed to ask why we’d attempted to throw a buzz saw out the back of the bike like a Bond car. Luckily we retrieved the sprocket and carrier, all in tact, from the infield.

When looking at the mammoth job, all of us thought that would be the day done… except Locky. With only an hour until the final race and double points on the line, which would have decided the final championship placings, he got to work pulling the whole rear assembly apart. We then enlisted the help of Patrick Clancy, who can clearly weld just as well as he can pilot an F1 sidecar, who helped join the carrier back together (we plan to turn this into a single piece going forward). He did an amazing job and Locky began the task of re-assembling everything as the boys suited up for the race – with the 2 min call in the pits going, they bolted the fairing back on and we were on, much to the surprise of the teams around us!

The issue obviously hadn’t played on the boys’ minds, as they pushed all race to clear away from a few of the F1s and catch up to Mick/Dave. Flying down into the final corner, Royce made an attempt to make a pass up the inside, but with Mick’s racing prowess, he saw this a mile away and ensured they were evenly placed on the exit so it would be a drag race to the finish line, which he snagged by about 0.05 of a second!

It made for some of the best racing fans had seen all year and secured second place in the Australian Titles for the Rowe Racing Team. And the cherry on top? The boys set a new F2 lap record on lap 7 while chasing the pack – a 1m06.1.

Presentations were a fantastic affair, well attended by all the racers. We got the chance to thank everyone involved, especially Les and Debbie for doing the long Nullarbor drive! Champagne was sprayed, Royce did a shoey, Guinness was only $6 at the bar… big smiles all round.

Once he had wrung the champagne out of his stringlet back into his glass, Royce said:

“The last Aus Title round of the year we were heading into with a glimpse of hope that if we had a flawless run we could clinch the top spot for the season. We had never set foot in Perth before and being up against Mick and Dave, it was going to be a hard task but we always have had a positive outlook.

“This was soon squandered with a second place behind Mick in Race One and mechanical failure in Race Two. Getting the lap record for F2s though was something special we could take away from the weekend as well as celebrating second place in the Australian Titles for the season with drenching each other in Perth’s finest sparkling wine!

“It was a great meeting held by the WA club making us feel very welcome. Well done to Leonard for doing a stellar effort each round getting stronger and giving me the confidence to do what I need to do.

“Huge thanks to Mum and Dad for doing the driving and countless hours in the shed. Locky and Deb for the mammoth effort put in to help maintain and improve the sidecar and taking photos. Thanks to my wife for allowing me to do what I love all year round. All of our sponsors that help ease the cost of racing.

“Every meeting we’re getting faster so I can’t wait to see what next year brings us! Next up is a bit of fun at Mallala on 7th of December, hope to see a few friendly faces around then.”

After forensically testing the similarities between Emu Export and West End Draught repeatedly, Leonard said:

“Heading over to WA for the first time ever, I was pretty nervous heading out for that first session. Luckily, plenty of locals were on hand to share some knowledge on where to watch for certain sections and their thoughts on the infamous bus stop – a new section of the track added about five years ago.

“It’s basically an S-bend with two ripple strips, which all teams seemed to navigate slightly differently. It then enters a long left hander, so after shooting out you need to be setting up for that. I was awkwardly moving about for the first few sessions before we agreed, why not just put my head down and sit dead centre of the platform to keep the bike balanced while Royce goes full throttle through the bend, floating the sidecar wheel over the ripple (which was allowed – taking the drive wheel over it was a penalty). This worked well and from there once heading down the basin, which was a steep hill down and back up, my job was fairly easy.

“I loved the track by the end of the weekend and wished we could have stayed another day, I reckon we could have shaved the lap times down into the 5s! The weekend itself was fantastic and really professionally run. Big thanks to everyone that helped out on the Sunday with our mechanical issues and in general getting us over there.”

Now that the Australian Championship is wrapped up for another year, we await to hear from Motorcycling Australia on what 2026 will look like. In the meantime, the lads will be heading out for a race day a bit closer to home on Sunday 7 December! Our club, Phoenix MCC, is hosting a Race Your Mates day for bracket racing at Mallala which will include a sidecars category. With one quali in the morning, then four races across the day, we’re keen as to get some solid track time at one of our favourite tracks. See you there!