World Champion Jason Doyle at Gillman Speedway Saturday night - November 2017

November 1, 2017 by Gillman Media

Newly crowned World Speedway Champion Jason Doyle will make his first appearance as the World Champion at Adelaide’s Gillman Speedway this Saturday night (4 November).

This will be one of only two appearances Doyle will make in Australia as he has to return to Poland this month for a bone graft in a broken foot he carried through the last half of the World Championship series.

Doyle will be joined by fellow international riders Rohan Tungate and Nick Morris in the Jack Young Cup, which commemorates Young as the only Australian to win the successive World Championships, in 1951/52.

The meeting is also a fundraiser for the Australian World Cup teams. Last season the corresponding meeting raised over $16,000 for the teams, and their appearance this Saturday night is Doyle, Tungate and Morris’ way of saying thanks to the Gillman Speedway fans.

32-year-old Doyle, from Newcastle in New South Wales, won the 2017 world title with victory in last Saturday night’s Australian Speedway Grand Prix staged at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium.

He joins a small group of Australian riders to win the championship, which dates back 1936 when Lionel van Praag won the inaugural title. The other winners have been ‘Bluey’ Wilkinson in 1938, Jack Young (1951, 52), Jason Crump (2004, 2006, 2009) and Chris Holder (2012).

Doyle does most of his racing overseas where he rides in League competitions in England, Sweden and Poland, and his English team, Swindon, recently won the British League Championship, with Nick Morris a high-scoring team-mate.

Morris is only 23-years-old but has been racing overseas since he went over for trials as a 15-year-old, and this season has been in career-best form, winning the British Championship League Rider’s individual event to back up his team victory in the Premier League.

The third international, Rohan Tungate, only lives a few kilometres from his home track in Kurri Kurri, New South Wales, but he is something of a track specialist at Gillman having won both the South Australian Championship, and a round of the Australian Championship at the Adelaide track.

On Saturday night in Melbourne, Tungate took two rides as a reserve in the Grand Prix and won both races, including one in the fastest time of the night, so he comes into the Gillman meeting in top form.

While the three international riders should fill the first three placings in the Jack Young Cup, racing should be very close between the other 15 riders in the event as many are out to impress Australian Team Manager Mark Lemon who is on the lookout for riders to join a new-look Australian Under 21 World Cup team next season.

Some of those riders will be Mildura’s Jordan Stewart, Jaimon Lidsey and Cooper Riordan, who took three of the first four places in last Sunday’s Victorian Under 21 Championship. Others riding Saturday night who impressed in the Victorian event are former World 250cc Under 16 Champion Matthew Gilmore, from Cowra in New South Wales, Adelaide rider Dakota Ballantyne, and Victorian James Davies who all got eliminated at the semi-final stage.

A full programme of Sidecar racing will support the Jack Young Cup, with star riders Mick Headland, Mark Mitchell, Shane Hudson (NSW) and Damien Niesche headlining a 19 rider line-up.

Racing in the main event starts at 7.30pm but prior to the main event, 250cc and 125cc Junior Solos will race between 5 and 6 pm, and Jason Doyle will be introduced to the crowd, and interviewed about his World Championship win at 7.10 pm.

During the night ex-international Australian speedway legends Leigh Adams and Darcy Ward will also be interviewed.

The main gate will open at 4 pm on Saturday night, but fans who want to watch many of the riders take part in a training school between 9.30 am and 3 pm, can enter through the eastern gate. Normal admission prices will apply as detailed below.

Spectators who are unable to attend will be able to watch live results on the internet, or their smart phone, by going to the “speedhive” website and clicking on the Gillman meeting. They will also be able to download a copy of the programme from the Gillman website.

Photo: Jason Doyle with his World Championship trophy at Etihad Stadium last Saturday night. Photo by Judy Mackay.

Everything You Need To Know:

Meeting Date: Saturday, 4 November 2017.

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

Gates open: Main (western) gate opens at 4pm. The eastern gate will open at 8 am for those wanting to watch the training school (9.30am to 3pm). Free spectator access to the pits for a close look at the bikes until 4.30 pm.

Junior 125cc and 250cc Solo racing: Starts at 5pm, finishes by 6pm

Jason Doyle introduction and interview: starts at 7.10pm.

Jack Young Cup and Sidecar Racing starts: at 7.30 pm.

Nominations:

Solo 500cc Jack Young Cup : Jason Doyle (NSW), Rohan Tungate (NSW), Nick Morris (Qld), James Davies, Jaimon Lidsey, Jack Morrison, Cooper Riordan, Jordan Stewart (Vic), Ben Cook, Zach Cook, Aden Clare, Matthew Gilmore (NSW), Kye Thomson (Qld), Dakota Ballantyne, Mitchell Grech, Seth Hickey, Brayden McGuinness, Robert Medson (SA)

Sidecar : Shane Hudson/Cameron Bell (NSW), Mick Headland/Brenton Kerr, Mark Mitchell/Dale Knights, Damien Niesche/Mitchell Spear, Ricky Adams/Alice Cox, Thomas Adams/Katelyn Silvy, Chris Bichard/Brett Lewis, Tim Bichard/Derick Thomas, Steve Browne/Colby Higgins, Paul Donnelly/Jake Roberts (Vic), Stephen Fowler/Ben Goodridge, Dean Hobbs/Justin Richards, Kym Menadue/Eric Melton, Ronny Parker/Ayrton Canning, Mark Radford/Blake Halls (Vic), Aaron Silvy/Jaron Speyer-Silvy, Brian Silvy/Cameron White, Mick Tucker/Corey Palmer, Darryll Woods/Will Walker,

Solo 250cc Under 16 : Connor Bailey (Vic), Fraser Bowes (SA), Jacob Hook (Qld), Liam May (SA), Teagan Pedler (SA), Keynan Rew (Qld), Bailey Viner (Qld)

Solo 125cc Under 16 on infield track : Patrick Bowes (SA), Ben Dixon (SA), Hugh Evans (SA), Jackson Milner (Vic), Teagan Pedler (SA), Nicholas Possingham (SA), Harry Sadler (SA)

Training Schools : 125cc: Ben Dixon, Hugh Evans, Jake Fleet, Jordan Hargreaves, Ashley Jansen-Batchelor, Riley McCarthy, Jackson Milner, Nicholas Possingham …..250cc: Connor Bailey, Patrick Bowes, Jacob Hook, Liam May, Teagan Pedler, Keynan Rew, Bailey Viner …..500cc: Dakota Ballantyne, Fraser Bowes, Aden Clare, Tom Dixon, Mitchell Grech, Seth Hickey, Brayden McGuinness, Blake Ridley, Kye Thomson.

Jack Young Solo Cup and Sidecar support formats: Both 16 heats plus semi-final and final.

Admission: Adults $25, Age Pension & Student Concession $20, Children aged 12-15 $5, Under 12 free, Family $55, Parking free. Programme $5. Grandstand $5. The same admission prices apply for the training school but pass outs will be issued.

Concession is limited to holders of the Centrelink Pensioner Concession Card and Student Concession card holders only.

Seating: Grandstand seating for 216 people. Large grassed viewing mounds and terracing suitable for deck chairs.

Food and drink: Full bar and catering available. Food includes hot chips, hamburgers, chicken burgers, pies, pasties, sausage rolls, Chiko Rolls, dim sims, hot dogs, doughnuts, coffee, cold drinks, sweets. “Gillman has far and away the best speedway tucker” [Peter White’s Speedway World]

Bar facilities available but 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. Eftpos available in the souvenir shop.

Weather Forecast: Maximum 22, minimum 9. Partly cloudy. [www.bom.gov.au/sa/forecasts/Adelaide]

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 from the airport, 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 airport 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, 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 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.

Live results on the internet or smart phone app: www.speedhive.mylaps.com, click on the Live Timing tab, and then the Gillman meeting under Live Events. Free to view. Gillman programme also available to download from the Gillman Speedway website (under the Shop tab) from Friday afternoon for $5.50 payable by credit card or PayPal.

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

In the Sidecar support events visiting New South Wales rider Shane Hudson, with passenger Cameron Bell, went through the card unbeaten and recorded the fastest one and four lap times on the new MYLAPS electronic timing system.

Hudson’s win in the final was made somewhat easier than expected with his major pre-meeting rivals Mark Mitchell/Dale Knights and Mick Headland/Brenton Kerr failing to see the meeting out, but Hudson had beaten both in heat five so would have still been confident of victory had they been in the final.

Mitchell had only dropped a point to Hudson in his first two rides and was on his way to victory in his third ride when his bike broke down and spun around in front of the closely following Kym Menadue who clipped him as he tried to avoid a crash. That put Mitchell out of his final ride, and it was a similar story for Mick Headland in his third ride as he was well ahead going into the last lap only to pull up with a clutch failure.

In the absence of Mitchell and Headland, Hudson was joined in the final by Kym Menadue/Eric Melton (11 points), Tim Bichard/Derick Thomas (9) and Aaron Silvy/Jaron Speyer-Silvy (9) who won the last chance semi-final from Ron Parker/Ayrton Canning (7) and Steve Browne/Colby Higgins (7) with Paul Donnelly/Jake Roberts (5) excluded from third place for going infield.

The race went as the heat points suggested with Hudson leading all the way for a narrow win over Menadue with Bichard third and Silvy fourth.

Earlier in the day the 250cc and 125cc Junior Solos had a programme of four rides each and Queenslander Keynan Rew was unbeaten in the 250s, although Fraser Bowes and Jacob Hook took it right up to him, Bowes leading for three laps when they met in heat 2, and Hook and Rew wheel to wheel for the full four laps in heat six. Patrick Bowes was the best of the 125cc riders, just ahead of Hugh Evans.