Plaisted and Pitt dominate at Gillman

Gillman Media 13 December 2021

Australian Champions Mark Plaisted and Ben Pitt dominated the Sidecar events at Gillman Speedway on Saturday night, going through the card unbeaten in their first appearance since winning the title in April.

At the other end of the experience scale, 16-year-old Kyle Machin was also unbeaten in the Solo Flat Track races, while Fraser Bowes came up one short in the 500cc Solos, winning four of the five heats and the final.

After two very good meetings the biggest crowd of the season saw some exciting racing in the second half of the meeting after a lacklustre start. There were quite a few processional races to start the night but things really fired up from event 16, heat six of the Sidecars.

That race saw Brian Silvy/Damian Egan, Mitch Spear/Glen Zaworski and Tom Adams/Jaxon Rayner racing three wide at times and constantly exchanging positions before Adams took the win from Spear with Silvy third.

The crowd were on their feet applauding the riders and that seemed to kick-start the meeting, and all three classes produced a string of exciting races for the next 20 or so events.

In the Sidecars there was passing galore in the remaining six heats. Mitch Spear led Mark Plaisted early in heat seven but made it easy for Plaisted by riding too wide. Jack Spear/Mark Papas and Kym Menadue/Eric Melton were side-by-side, with Menadue marginally ahead in heat 8, but Menadue was pushed back to third place with Spear taking the win and Brain Silvy finishing second. And in heat 9 Tom Adams and comeback rider Daniel Puddy (passenger Byron Mordaunt) had a thrilling race until Puddy lost balance and went infield on lap three. Puddy was involved in another good race, with Stephen Fowler/Ben Goodridge and Silvy/Egan in heat 11 but they were only fighting for second place behind Plaisted.

At the end of the twelve heats, Plaisted/Pitt on 12 points, Jack Spear/Papas 11, and Menadue/Melton 9 were the direct qualifiers for the final, with Adams/Rayner 9, Silvy/Egan 6, Kane Golding/Isaac Amos 4 and Fowler/Goodridge 4 qualifying for the semi-final.

Two riders on 4 points getting through to the semi-final shows how competitive the Sidecars are this season as it was a fine line between those who qualified and those that didn’t. Dean Hobbs/Daniel Low rode very well and challenged some of the riders who did qualify but missed out on a countback, as did last meeting’s final winners Mitch Spear/Glen Zaworski. Spear had a couple of pointless rides, spinning while challenging Menadue for the lead in heat two, and suffering bike trouble, which baulked Hobbs and resulted in an exclusion, in heat ten, and with the riders so even this season, no one can afford to drop points and still expect to get through to the finals.

The semi-final was another thrilling race. Silvy and Golding were side-by-side, neither able to edge ahead when Adams, in third place, spun and was hit by Fowler. In the resulting rerun, without Adams, Silvy and Golding were again side-by-side and the lead changed twice on the last lap before Golding spun in the last turn and was clipped by Silvy. Golding tipped over, but without injury, while Silvy was able to maintain control to finish the race and go through to the final.

It was Plaisted leading all the way in the final, but Menadue, Silvy and Jack Spear had another cracker race for second. Menadue unfortunately ran off the track near the end of the second lap, leaving Spear and Silvy to do battle. Spear eventually took second place but was excluded for going infield when he made a tough inside pass on Silvy on lap two.

There was a major disappointment for Solo fans with Liam May (shoulder injury), Brayden McGuinness (illness), Steve Graetz and Cooper Riordan all out before the meeting started. In their absence Fraser Bowes won five of the six races in the revamped programme. His only loss was in the fifth heat in which he was relegated to third place by Jake Turner and Arlo Bugeja who crossed the line side-by-side with Bugeja getting the judge’s verdict.

Jackson Milner and Blake Ridley had some close races in Group 2. Milner came out on top in all but their first heat, which was Milner’s first on a 500, but there was nothing between them all night.

Kyle Machin showed some class in the Solo Flat Track races, winning from the front and the back. In his fourth heat he found himself in fourth place behind Seane Chapman, Julian Timmis and Sean Curtis, but as they diced for the lead Machin took the inside line to go from fourth to first in one turn on the second lap. Chapman, Curtis, Timmis and Dylan McKenzie had some good scraps in the heats, as did Graeme Eberhard and Dale Knights, but McKenzie missed the final after a flat tyre in one of the heats put him on the sidelines. Machin had a clear cut win in the final, pulling away comfortably after the race was increased to six laps, while Curtis won another close race with Chapman and Timmis to take second with Chapman third and Timmis fourth.

The next Gillman meeting is the South Australian Solo Championship on Tuesday night, 28 December.