Sailun Tyres Gillman Sidecar Championship this Saturday night - November 2014

November 19, 2014 by Gillman Media

After only one meeting of the 2014/15 summer season, Gillman Speedway moves into championship mode this Saturday night, 22 November, with the staging of the Sailun Tyres Gillman Speedway Sidecar Championship.

With the Sidecars out in force again this meeting (with 24 nominations), they have again been split into two groups, with the top 12 riders contesting the Gillman Championship and the second group of 12 contesting the Division 2 Championship.

With a strong line-up of riders the promoters had a difficult time deciding on the top 12 riders but Speedway Manager David Parker explained this can only result in a top class meeting for the spectators. “We’ve got some very good riders in the Division 2 Championship. Riders who could justifiably argue they could hold their own against many of the riders in the top group, but it just means there will be two very entertaining Championships instead of one and it won’t be easy for any of those riders to win the Div 2 Title.”

Both Championships will be held over 12 heats, a semi-final and a final and there is no clear-cut favourite in either group.

Mark Plaisted/Brian Anthony go into the meeting as defending champions, but despite winning the final at the opening meeting they will share the favouritism with quite a number of riders including Justin Plaisted/Sam Harrison, who won all the heats at the last meeting before being beaten by Mark in the Final, and former South Australian Champions Mark Mitchell/Tom Golding and Mick Headland, with stand-in passenger Luke Smith replacing the injured Jesse Headland, but every rider in the line-up is capable of reaching the semi-final stage and possibly the Final. Arron Hartwig/Teagan Hartwig and Trent Headland/Daryl Whetstone will both have a lot of support and Jason Hardy won the championship only two seasons ago, but the others can’t just be dismissed. Byren Gates is a former Victorian Champion, Daniel Puddy, Damien Niesche and Rob Patterson always ride well at Gillman, and Kiwi David Gannon is highly rated in his home country although gear-change problems prevented him showing that form here a fortnight ago.

This Division 2 Championship is just as open with probably five or six serious chances of taking the title and, again, most of the field capable of reaching the semi-final stage. The favourites are Broken Hill’s Rick Stephens/Darcy Risstrom, who must have been close to a Div 1 place after impressive first-up form a fortnight ago, Shane Evans/Kane Turner, Shane Rudloff/Damian Egan, Timothy Bichard/Dale Knights, Chris Dess/Ben Pitt and maybe Kym Menadue/Anthony Schulz. The deciding factors will be who can consistently score points throughout the heats and then hold their nerves to put in a big ride, and a mistake free ride, in the final.

With 28 Sidecar events they will take up the bulk of the programme but there will also be support events for the 500cc Solos, with 16-year-old Cooper Riordan from Mildura, and local rider Robert Medson the favourites to top score, and the 250cc Junior Solos.

The meeting will start promptly at 7.30pm and, barring incidents, finish around 10.30pm.

Everything You Need To Know:

Meeting Date: Saturday night, 22 November 2014.

Venue: Gillman Speedway Stadium, 65 Wilkins Road, Gillman – near the Port Adelaide area.

Gates open: at 5 pm.

Racing starts: at 7.30 pm. Free spectator access to the pits for a close look at the bikes until approximately 6.30 pm.

Riders:

Gillman Championship: Mark Plaisted / Brian Anthony, Justin Plaisted / Sam Harrison, Arron Hartwig / Teagan Hartwig, Byren Gates / Michael O’Loughlin (Vic), Jason Hardy / Adam Pascoe, David Gannon / Raymond George (NZ), Mick Headland / Luke Smith, Trent Headland / Daryl Whetstone, Mark Mitchell / Tom Golding, Daniel Puddy / Luke Puddy, Damien Niesche / Mitchell Spear, Rob Patterson / Brenton Kerr (Vic)

Gillman Division 2 Championship: Shane Evans / Kane Turner, Rick Stephens / Darcy Risstrom (NSW), Shane Rudloff / Damian Egan, Timothy Bichard / Dale Knights, Kym Menadue / Anthony Schulz, Dean Hobbs / Andy Westover, Clinton Crabb / Jarred Edey, Klae Hobbs / Matt Morgan, Keith Bichard / Derick Thomas, Chris Bichard / Brett Lewis, Brian Silvy / Josh Knott, Chris Dess / Ben Pitt (Vic)

500cc Solos: Cooper Riordan (Vic), Robert Medson, Seth Hickey, Jake Mitchell, Luke Mitchell, Blake Ridley, Matthew Flay

250cc Solos: Dakota Ballantyne, Mitchell Grech, Brayden McGuinness

125cc Junior Solos (infield track): Jack Norman, Brayden McGuinness, Mitchell Grech, Liam May, William Coombes, Fraser Bowes, Seth Pascoe, Layne Riordan (Vic)

Sponsor: Sailun Tyres

Sailun Tyres are a high quality tyre from one of the most technically advanced tyre manufacturers in China. In 2002 several well-known corporations and experts in the tyre industry invested and established Sailun with technological support from the rubber industry and Qingdao University of Science and Technology. Sailun is the first tyre manufacturer to integrate production, research and demonstration techniques, while developing new products, and many experts in the tyre industry have come to Sailun to improve their tyre design theory, technique and test methods.

Admission:

Adults $25, Age Pension and Student Concession $20, Children Under 16 $5 (aged between 12-15 inclusive), Children Under 12 free. Family $55. Programme $5. Parking free. Concession is limited to holders of the Centrelink Pensioner Concession Card and Student Concession card holders only. A family ticket covers 2 Adults and children under 16.

Weather Forecast: Maximum 33, minimum 18. Mostly sunny. [www.bom.gov.au/sa/forecasts/Adelaide]

Seating: There are large terraced and grassed viewing mounds and but no grandstand seating, so bring deck chairs or blankets if you do not want to sit on the grass.

Food and drink: Full bar and catering available. Food includes hot chips, pies, pasties, sausage rolls, Chico Rolls, dim sims, hot dogs, sandwiches, doughnuts, coffee, cold drinks, sweets. Please note a condition of our liquor licence is no byo alcohol or glass can be brought into the venue. Also note no pets, other than guide dogs, are allowed into the venue.

Souvenirs: There is a well-stocked souvenir shop including the latest Blackchrome manufactured shirts and jackets. Eftpos available only in the souvenir shop.

Directions:

The best way to get to Gillman Speedway is off Hanson Road.

If you are coming from the eastern and southern suburbs, get on to Hanson road off Torrens Road or Grand Junction Road, travel north on Hanson road over the train line then take the first road on the left, which is Wilkins road.

From the northern suburbs, travel down the new Port Adelaide expressway and take the Hanson Road exit. Once on Hanson Road, take the first exit on your right, this is Wilkins road.

From the western suburbs, Wilkins Road is the continuation of Bedford Street, north of Eastern Parade.

For interstate visitors flying into Adelaide and getting a hire car, Gillman is about 20kms, and 30 minutes’ drive (depending on traffic lights) from the airport.

The easiest and most direct way, if not going to your accommodation first is:

On leaving the airport, turn left onto Sir Donald Bradman Drive. Continue along Sir Donald Bradman Drive until you reach the end of the airports grounds and turn right onto Tapleys Hill Road. Once you are on Tapleys Hill Road you can’t really go wrong. You only have to make three or four turns and most of those are simple. Just keep going on Tapleys Hill Road until you can’t go any further. That’s Port Road. Turn left onto Port Road. You can only turn left, you can’t go straight ahead or turn right, so pretty easy to this point. Continue down Port Road for about 1 km to the first intersection which is Grand Junction road and turn right. You only go 700 metres along Grand Junction Road over a bridge over a railway line. Stay in the left lane because at the bottom of the bridge you turn left into Gray Terrace. Go to the end of Gray Terrace (there is a slight detour along Gray Terrace at the moment) and turn right (you can’t go straight ahead) onto Bedford Street. Just keep going on that Road until you get to the speedway. About 2 kms.

Accommodation:

There is plenty of accommodation in Adelaide and suburbs, within 20-30 minutes of the Speedway, ranging from five star hotels to caravan parks and backpacker hostels. The Pavlos Motel on Main North Road, Pooraka offers a discount to speedway fans but you must ring the motel direct and ask for the Gillman Speedway discount. Full details are on the Gillman website under the information/accommodation tab.

Contact for this meeting: Speedway Manager, David Parker 0403 364 658

Main photo: Winners of the past two Gillman Sidecar Championships Mark Plaisted/Brian Anthony (2013/14) and Jason Hardy (current passenger Adam Pascoe) (2012/13). Photo by Mike Gerlach JDM Photos.