Another entertaining meeting at Gillman

30 November, 2021 by Gillman Media

The second meeting of the season at Gillman Speedway in Adelaide was another entertaining night with no rider in any class able to go through the card unbeaten.

The meeting saw the return of Fraser Bowes, fresh out of quarantine after being based in Germany over the Australian winter, and with the international experience gained over the last six months, on top of a very good local season last summer, he went into the meeting as the favourite in the 500cc Solo class and ultimately won the Rider of the Night final, but Kiwi Jake Turner continued his good form to challenge him through the heats.

Turner inflicted the only defeat on Bowes but also offered a lot stronger challenge than the heat results would indicate. In their first clash, in heat two, Turner was leading until Bowes made an aggressive inside pass, the type of pass you don’t usually see from the local riders until they’ve had a season overseas, and Turner had to change his line and back off to avoid falling and lost a lot of ground. In their next clash Bowes was leading with Turner right behind him until Bowes got crossed up and Turner again had to change line and back off to avoid a collision. This time it allowed Dayle Wood and Patrick Hamilton to get under him and although he managed to get around Hamilton he couldn’t catch and pass Wood.

In Turner’s third ride (without Bowes) he was leading Wood and Hamilton when his steel shoe came partly off on the last lap which again allowed Wood and Hamilton to pass him.

Everything finally went right for Turner in heat five when he led all the way to inflict Bowes’ only defeat, but he was in the wars again in the final. The red light came on straight away after the start of the race and as the bikes slowed going into turn one, Bowes drifted wide and Turner (from gate 4) fell and crashed into the air fence. In the restart Steve Graetz’s bike stalled at the start, and Turner had bike trouble giving Bowes an easy win with Wood second.

Wood and Hamilton, down from Mildura after the SA/Vic border opened earlier in the week, and local rider Graetz had some close scraps throughout the night and in Group two Blake Ridley and Teagan Pedler again had some close races, taking two wins each with Shaun Sampson not far behind. Ridley and Pedler then got a chance to ride against Hamilton and Graetz in the last chance semi-final for the Rider of the Night final. Unfortunately for Pedler her bike stalled at the tapes and she just failed to get restarted and back to the tapes by a few seconds, but Ridley rode well and was the early leader before Graetz and then Hamilton managed to peg him back.

The Sidecars provided some thrilling racing on opening night and that continued in the opening event on Saturday night until things went badly wrong!

The race featured Shane Rudloff/Scott Morris, Rick Stephens/Nick O’Brien, Mitch Spear/Glen Zaworski and Tom Adams/Michael Bell and from the start it was Rudloff and Stephens side-by-side, closely followed by Spear and Adams. Then Adams started to reel them in. He got under Spear near the end of the first lap. Then surprisingly under Rudloff on lap three and was catching Stephens when Stephens’ bike suddenly slowed on the last lap. Adams was unable to avoid him, clipped the bike and spun into the path of Rudloff. The resulting melee saw Morris (ribs) and Bell (ankle) injured. Rudloff was out for the night but Adams did continue with Kane Golding as passenger, but with an unfamiliar passenger and bike problems from the crash, he failed to make the finals.

In their absence there was still some close racing between the other riders with Mitch Spear/Glen Zaworski the standouts, winning their remaining three heats and then the final ahead of Gillman track champions Stephens/O’Brien, Aaron Silvy/Jaron Silvy and Brian Silvy/Damian Egan. And Spear’s winning time for the final was the fastest time of the night, unusual for any speedway meeting to clock the fastest time in event 31.

In the Flat Track Solos Nigel Sadler again had to work hard against young Kyle Machin, and Machin actually won their first clash before Sadler won all of his other heats and the final. In their first ride together the lead change three times over the last lap and from some angles it looked like Sadler took the win but the referee said Machin, on the inside, just got up on the line.

Sadler was also made to work hard for victory in his third ride when he was only in third place behind Dylan McKenzie and Seane Chapman with a lap to go. McKenzie, Chapman and Roy Stout had some exciting races against each other during the night, as did Julian Timmis and John White, but the Final saw Sadler win ahead of Machin, with Chapman taking third ahead of Stout and McKenzie after several position changes between the latter three.

In the 125cc Junior Solo class, Harry Sadler went through the twelve heats unbeaten but Ashley Jansen-Batchelor, the other half of the Australian Pairs Champions with Sadler, took the final ahead of Sadler, Travis Clarke and Seth Pascoe.