Mark Plaisted/Brian Anthony first night winners at Gillman Speedway - November 2014

November 10, 2014 by Gillman Media

Just as they did last season, Mark Plaisted/Brian Anthony won the Group 1 Sidecar final at the Gillman Speedway summer season opening meeting on Saturday night.

They were not, however, the dominant riders on the night. In a meeting where many riders were in top form and not suffering from the often seen opening night gremlins, it was Plaisted’s brother, Justin Plaisted (passenger Sam Harrison) who dominated the heats. Justin sat out most of the last season but marked his returned to racing at Gillman by going through the heats unbeaten for a 12 point maximum score. Joining him in the final, for the highest four point scorers, were Mark Plaisted and Warren Monson (passenger Matt Morgan) on 10 points each, and Arron Hartwig/Teagan Hartwig on 9.

Mark dropped his two points in the opening heat when he anticipated the start but had to throttle off to avoid touching the tapes and consequentially got a poor start. While Justin raced away for an easy win, Mark had a close race with Hartwig, and they exchanged places a couple of times with Hartwig getting under Mark in turn three on the last lap to grab second place. Monson dropped his points to the Plaisteds in heats eleven and twelve after leading both races on the opening lap.

In the final Justin won the start and on heat form looked likely to win, but he was quickly shuffled back to last place as Mark pushed under him in turn two; Monson went under him down the back straight and Hartwig under him in turn three. Hartwig retired on the next lap with his bike on fire and Mark won easily while Justin and Monson exchanged places many times before Justin claimed second place.

Other Group 1 riders who were in good opening night form were Mildura’s Byren Gates/Michael O’Loughlin; Jason Hardy/Adam Pascoe; Broken Hill’s Rick Stephens/Darcy Risstrom and Melbourne’s Simon Hartley/Michael King, despite an horrific looking crash in their first ride. Hartley managed to see out the night using Jack Nicholls as passenger and was in much better form than his three point tally would indicate.

Group 2 Sidecars

There was also an unbeaten rider in the Group 2 heats, with Gillman debutants Paul Hemsworth/Rod Russell from Kurri Kurri in New South Wales winning their four heats, before also winning a three-state final from Victoria’s Mark Radford/Chris Walker and locals Kym Menadue/Anthony Schulz, with Dean Hobbs/Andy Westover, after a consistent night to reach the final, non-finishers.

Menadue earlier won his first three heats before retiring from his last heat while running second to Hemsworth.

Of the non-finalists, Klae Hobbs/Mitchell Spear, Clinton Crabb/Jarred Edey, Chris Bichard/Brett Lewis and Ricky Fechner/Justin Richards all had their moments but Hobbs had two infield exclusions; Crabb had one, and Fechner missed two rides with electrical problems. Crabb, riding the Ron Parker bike with Parker out with a knee injury from last season, actually scored enough points to qualify for the final but withdrew and was replaced by Radford.

Unfortunately there was a bad crash in Group two, involving Radford and Aaron Silvy/Steve Lewis in heat five. They had a close race for second place behind Hemsworth and exchanged places many times before Radford went under Silvy in the last turn, the bikes touched and Silvy cartwheeled across the finish line. Unfortunately Silvy fractured a disc in his back, and was cut by his back protector, and Lewis had to have about twenty stitches in a wrist/arm injury.

Solos

With the international riders not yet back from Great Britain, the dominant rider in the Solo classes was 18-year old Jack Fallon. He and Robert Medson were about par last season but on Saturday night’s results Fallon, who had some practice rides in England and Poland near the end of the recent European season, looks to have a stepped up a level as he won every race by big margins. His closest competitor was fellow Mildura rider Cooper Riordan. The just-turned 16-year-old made a steady start, just grabbing second place from Medson on the line in heat one after a race long duel with Medson and Seth Hickey, but with that race to settle his nerves he comfortably outpaced Medson and Hickey in the other three heats.

The Group 2 and Under 16 250cc Solo races showed the benefit of track time and confidence as several riders showed marked improvement over just a few races.

With three teenagers joining the group 2 ranks for the first time, it was the more experienced riders in Gary Fischer and Jake Mitchell who dominated the first race as they battled for the lead while the three new boys, Matt Flay, Luke Bacskai and Blake Ridley had their own battle for third place, but approaching the last corner veteran Fischer fell and the closely following Mitchell had to take evasive action which allowed Ridley through for a debut win. That win was somewhat fortuitous but thereafter Ridley got better with every race. He passed Fischer in heat two to finish second to Mitchell, then passed both Mitchell and Fischer to win heat three, and passed Mitchell again to win heat four.

It was a similar story in the junior 250cc races. Mitchell Grech won the first race by a big margin, about a third-of-a-lap, from Jack Sylvia and Brayden McGuinness, but again, with a race to settle the nerves, first-timer McGuinness came out and won the second heat; Sylvia had a lucky win in heat three when Grech fell and McGuinness had to take avoiding action clearing a path for the third placed Sylvia, but then Sylvia comfortably won the final heat.

In the junior 125cc races on the infield track, McGuinness and Jack Norman had some exciting scraps in Group 1 with Norman emerging as the top scorer with 10 points to McGuinness’ 9; while Fraser Bowes, after a first race fall, won his other three heats to win Group 2 with 9 points ahead of Layne Riordan on 8, and Seth Pascoe on 6.