Narrow win for National Karate Swindon Robins at Gillman Speedway

August 6, 2018 by Gillman Media

Despite heavy rain in the days before and after the August round of the 500cc Solo Teams Development Program, Saturday’s race day (August 4) at Adelaide’s Gillman Speedway was fine and dry and resulted in one of best matches of the series thus far, both in terms of the racing, and the scoreline.

This month the two teams were more closely aligned to the riders’ home states with all the Gillman and Mildura riders representing the National Karate Swindon Robins, which made them the home team and as such slight favourites, but the visiting CBS Bins Leszno Bulls, made up of mostly New South Wales riders, put them on the back foot virtually from the start.

The first heat was drawn three-all, but the Bulls took a two point lead after heat two and extended that to six points after heat four.

That gave the Robins the chance of tactical ride which they took in heat six with team captain Robert Medson riding for double points but he was only able to get four points for second place behind Matthew Pickering and the margin was only reduced back to four points.

The lead was extended slightly to five points after heat 8 but then the Robins staged a gradual comeback, not losing another heat and a run of shared heats, and 4-2 victories, enabled them to take the lead by one point after heat 13, and to win the match by three points, 47-44.

Top scorer for the winning team was Medson with 15 points, with Dakota Ballantyne producing his most confident display of the winter with 12 (paid 13) and Brayden McGuiness, with 9 points, also looking very good in his first appearance after two months racing in Denmark.

Standout rider for the Bulls was Matthew Pickering with 13 points, losing only to Medson and Ballantyne, although he beat both in the top-scorers’ heat 15. Kane Lawrence was the next highest scorer with 8 (paid 9), followed by reserve Aden Clare (7) and Aaron Jackson (6 paid 7), but Mitchell Cluff, although only scoring 5 (paid 6), caught the eye and was much better than his score indicates.

Clare and Tom Dixon, the two number sevens, figured in some of the closest races of the day, including a match race in heat eight after team-mates Fraser Bowes and Mitch Cluff both fell.

The next match is on September 1.