Twelve months ago Bathurst’s Sean Griffiths had only ever dreamed about racing dirt track sidecars, but now he is preparing to contest the Australian Track Championships in Taree.

Along with passenger Scott Burns, Griffiths has not looked back since he purchased a sidecar in November last year. That pair have already contested five events together and notched up two outright third placings.

“I’ve wanted to do it for 10 years and things just weren’t right at the time and I didn’t have a bike,” Griffiths said.

“Last year when it [dirt track] came back to Bathurst in November, I knew a few people who rode and I was in the pits and I came home with a bike.”

The next task was for Griffiths to find a passenger, and while Burns had no experience in sidecar racing, he was keen to give it a go.

“I didn’t really have an idea of what I was in for, no, not until I started watching some racing,” Burns said.

“I dead set love it, it is the maddest adrenalin rush I have ever come across. I am glad that Sean asked me if I wanted to jump on with him, I am glad to get the opportunity.

“It does take a lot of trust, I am like the steering wheel, if I fall off he’s stuffed.”

After six months of working on the bike, the pair were ready to try their hand at the sport and headed off to the Nepean track.

Griffiths did two slow laps in second gear and when Burns, who moves on a platform at the rear of the bike and transfers his weight from left to right according to the corner, was comfortable they went straight into racing.

It was a difficult start in more ways than one – in their third race a bike in front of them crashed and a member of that team died. But Burns and Griffiths have stuck with it and as their skills have improved, their passion for the sport has grown.

“It was difficult to learn and we don’t have access to a track here in Bathurst, so we can’t practice,” Griffiths said.

“We have done a lot of travelling – Nepean, Cowra, Taree and Canberra. A lot of the clubs with tracks now won’t even offer sidecars a chance to race because they don’t get the numbers.

“But if clubs don’t offer the races, then people are not going to get involved in the sport and you aren’t going to get the numbers. It is a bit of a catch 22.

“We would love to get people talking about the sport more, at the moment it’s dying, so we want to see it get up and going.”

Within the small group of those that do race regularly, Griffiths and Burns have not only been given plenty of support and advice, but have been gradually improving as well.

At the Canberra Cup on the weekend, the Bathurst duo made the final and placed fifth overall for the weekend.

“That was our fifth race. We had a couple of false starts and a few hiccups, but that’s racing,” Griffiths said. “Our last race was the final and we absolutely had a ball. We sort of though ‘Bugger it, let’s give it all we’ve got’ and we ended up fourth.

“We race a 600cc bike and the other guys are on 1000cc. The guys that finished first and second are in the top 10 in Australia, they have both won Australian titles before.”

The next assignment will be yet another challenge for the pair as they race on an oil track for the first time in the Australian Dirt Championships in Taree on August 29-30. They are one of six pairs who were invited to race. From there it is on to the 2015 NSW Senior Dirt Track Championships at Coffs Harbour on September 19-20.