Title number five for Rory Schlein

Gillman Media, 5 February 2023

Rory Schlein moved to outright fourth on the list of all-time winners with his fifth win in the South Australian Solo Championship at Gillman Speedway on Friday night.

Schlein also smashed a couple of long-standing Jack Young records in the process. Young previously had the longest time between wins, 6 years, and the longest time between his first and last wins, 16 years, but Schlein extended those times to 16 and 19 years respectively. I wonder if he thought when he won his first title as a 19-year-old that he’d win again 19 years later!

Although Schlein, as expected, went through the card undefeated, he didn’t have an easy run in the final as Adelaide-based Kiwi Jake Turner was on his back wheel all the way and at times looked like making an inside pass but Schlein always had that little extra in hand that he needed to stay in front.

Schlein and Turner (12 points) were two of the three direct qualifiers to the final along with 18-year-old surprise packet Michael West. Young West, from Towrang in New South Wales, only moved into speedway just over a year ago after spending his formative years in junior dirt track, rather than junior speedway, but was the second highest scorer with a superb 13 points. He was sitting unbeaten on 9 points after his first three rides before going down to Turner by the barest of margins in one of the races of the night in his fourth ride, and dropped his only other point, of course, to Schlein in his last heat.

As well as being beaten by Schlein, Turner dropped his other two points to Patrick Hamilton and Declan Knowles in his third ride when he suffered a flat tyre while fighting for the lead with Hamilton.

Missing out on a direct place in the final but getting a second chance in the semi-final were Maurice Brown on 11 points and Jack Morrison, Brayden McGuinness and Declan Knowles all on 10 points. McGuinness was the only one who could have finished with more as he had his last ride won when his bike ground to a halt and he had to push home for almost half-a-lap for a consolation point. The win would have put him on 12 points but would have only affected his choice of gate in the semi-final as he would have missed a place in the final to Turner on countback, based on the result of heat two, a race which, at the time, looked like the possible final line-up, and which resulted in a win for Schlein, with Turner second, McGuinness third and Morrison fourth.

McGuinness was probably the favourite for the semi-final, especially after Brown, who had first choice of gate, took white which is always the last gate left in the finals at Gillman, but it was Morrison who led all the way for a relatively easy win with Knowles second, Brown third and McGuinness fourth after a good three way scrap.

Of the non-qualifiers for the two finals 49-year-old Steven Graetz, who finished a high as third behind Ryan Sullivan and Shane Parker in this event in his younger days, put in some very tenacious rides worthy of more than the 6 points he scored, while at the other end of the age scale, 19-year-old Patrick Hamilton was the unlucky rider of the night. His first bike broke down in practice but on his number two bike he was on 7 points after his first three rides before that too broke down while dicing for the lead with McGuinness in his fourth ride, and he saw out the night riding Jack Morrison’s bike in his last ride. Even a second place in that fourth ride would have given him a place in the semi-final on a countback with Knowles.

Liam May was also unlucky, but lucky at the same time. After a first-up win, he was leading his second ride after going between Brown and Morrison down the back straight, but he hit the fence and fell at the end of the second lap. The good luck was that he was not injured as he fell in front of Morrison who managed to miss him but took the brunt of May’s bike and it was remarkable he did not fall. Another two falls restricted May’s total to just four points.

As reported Schlein led all the way in the final with Turner a close second, while Morrison won a close race with West for third place.

After 13 points in the heats, West was disappointed with fourth in the final, but he was aware just getting to the final was enough to make him eligible for a British visa if a team place was offered, and both he and Turner are keen to ride in the UK.

In the Sidecar support races Shane Hudson and Adam Constable went through the night unbeaten, but the racing was close with seven different heat winners and most of the field were still in with a chance of making the final with one round of heats to go.

As well as Hudson/Constable, on the maximum possible 12 points, the other direct qualifiers were Brian Silvy/Dean Cottrell on 9 and first year duo Josh Pascoe/Matt Crawford, in only their third meeting, on 8, while Shane Rudloff/Scott Morris, also on 8, came through the semi-final which they won ahead of Dean Hobbs/Daniel Low (7) and Tim Bichard/Seth Pascoe (7), with Kane Golding/Isaac Amos (6) non-starters with bike trouble.

Although they came last in the semi-final Bichard/Pascoe came close to beating Hudson in his last heat when they led until a fairly hefty shunt by Hudson saw them drop back a little.

The three non-qualifiers, Adam Pascoe/Axel Brereton (4), Aaron Silvy/Jaron Silvy (3) and Nathan Fleet/Cameron Diwell (2) also were well in the mix in their races and all added to the excitement. Silvy had a good win over his brother Brian and Fleet, in his first ride, in the fastest time of round one, before suffering a terminal engine failure in his second ride; Pascoe had 4 points from his first two rides and should have won his second ride but threw it away by riding too wide in turn four, before he too went out with bike trouble; while Fleet was quick but also had bike trouble. The race of the night was heat five between Fleet, Golding, Hudson and Josh Pascoe, when all four led at different stages before Hudson took the win.

In the final Brian Silvy challenged Hudson but Hudson was still able to lead all the way with Silvy second, Rudloff third and Josh Pascoe fourth.

In the other classes Harry Sadler won each of his four rides with Darcey Timmis in the Under 16 250cc class; Brent Webley was the top point scorer in the Flat Track Solo class; and Ayrton Canning was unbeaten in the Under 16 125cc class, and won the final ahead of Blake Schlein, Jordan Hargreaves and Hayden Pascoe.