Gillman Speedway summer season starts on Saturday night - November 2014

The 2014/15 Gillman Speedway summer season starts this Saturday night, 8 November, with a 40 event programme featuring an incredible 26 Sidecars, with riders from Victoria and New South Wales as well as South Australia.

The number of riders means the Sidecars have been split into two groups, both with their own final for the top four pointscorers.

Group 1 will include the star riders including Mark Plaisted / Brian Anthony, Warren Monson / Matt Morgan (Vic), Justin Plaisted / Sam Harrison, Arron Hartwig / Teagan Hartwig and Byren Gates / Michael O’Loughlin (Vic). Mark Plaisted won the corresponding meeting last season, but will only go into Saturday night’s meeting sharing favouritism with the other riders mentioned. Like his brother, Justin Plaisted is one of South Australia’s best riders, Arron Teagan is a highly regarded young rider pushing to join the top group, Warren Monson is the current and a five-times Victorian Champion, and Byren Gates is also a former Victorian Champion. Other interstate riders in group one are David Gannon / Raymond George (NZ), Simon Hartley / Michael King (Vic), and Rick Stephens / Darcy Risstrom (NSW).

Group 2 also includes several interstate riders including NSW’s Paul Hemsworth / Rod Russell who reached the semi-final of a recent Sidecar meeting at Gosford. This group is wide open with most of the riders having a similar amount of experience and ability, and there is sure to be plenty of interest to see just who the four finalists will be.

With the international riders not yet back from Great Britain, the Solo ranks are short on numbers, but it is pleasing to see a number of new faces including three riders newly graduated from the junior Speedway. 18-year-old Jack Fallon from Mildura will be the meeting favourite ahead of Robert Medson, Seth Hickey and just turned 16-year-old Cooper Riordan. Another four teenagers, who no doubt with step up into the senior ranks in a year or two, will ride in the 250cc class, so the future is looking brighter for the Solos than it has for quite some time.

The meeting will start promptly at 7.30pm following a parade of all the riders and, barring incidents, finish around 10.30pm.

Jack Fallon (left) and Robert Medson. Photo by Judy Mackay.

Top photo: left to right, Jason Hardy/Darcy Risstrom (white), Arron Hartwig/Teagan Hartwig (yellow), Mark Plaisted/Brian Anthony (blue). Photo by Mike Gerlach JDM Photos.

Everything You Need To Know:

Meeting Date: Saturday night, 8 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:

Group 1 Sidecars: Mark Plaisted / Brian Anthony, Warren Monson / Matt Morgan (Vic), Justin Plaisted / Sam Harrison, Arron Hartwig / Teagan Hartwig, Byren Gates / Michael O’Loughlin (Vic), Jason Hardy / Adam Pascoe, David Gannon / Raymond George (NZ), Shane Rudloff / Damian Egan, Simon Hartley / Michael King (Vic), Shane Evans / Kane Turner, Rick Stephens / Darcy Risstrom (NSW), Timothy Bichard / Dale Knights, Brenten Dwyer / Daz Whetstone

Group 2 Sidecars: Paul Hemsworth / Rod Russell (NSW), Aaron Silvy / Steve Lewis, Ricky Fechner / Justin Richards, Kym Menadue / Anthony Schulz, Mark Radford / Chris Walker (Vic), Michael Hoogland / Don Morris, Dean Hobbs / Andy Westover, Clinton Crabb / Jarred Edey, Klae Hobbs / Mitchell Spear, Keith Bichard / Derick Thomas, Chris Bichard / Brett Lewis, Brian Silvy / Josh Knott, Tim Bannan / Jack Nicholls (Vic) (scratched 6/11)

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

250cc Solos: Dakota Ballantyne, Mitchell Grech, Brayden McGuinness, Jack Sylvia (Vic)

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

Sponsor:

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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 27, minimum 19. Slight chance of showers until late afternoon. [www.bom.gov.au/sa/forecasts/Adelaide]

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

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.

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.

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

More to follow, but Mark Plaisted/Brian Anthony won the Group 1 Sidecar Final from Justin Plaisted/Sam Harrison and Warren Monson/Matt Morgan. Arron Hartwig/Teagan Hartwig pulled out when their bikes caught fire.

Paul Hemsworth/Rod Russell won the Group 2 Sidecar Final from Mark Radford/Chris Walker and Kym Menadue/Anthony Schulz. Dean Hobbs/Andy Westover did not finish.

Solo top point scorers were Jack Fallon (Group 1), Blake Ridley (Group 2), Jack Sylvia (250cc Junior), Jack Norman (125cc Junior).