Sam the Master at Gillman Speedway - November 2016

Sam Masters continued his impressive start to the 2016/17 Australian Speedway season by winning the final of the Australian World Cup Team fundraising meeting at Gillman Speedway on Saturday night, 24 hours after winning the Phil Crump Trophy at Mildura.

Masters was one of five current or past British League riders competing in the meeting, and three of them – Masters, Justin Sedgmen and Cameron Woodward – were equal top point scorers in the heats with 11 points each (from four rides). But the other two, Max Fricke and Tyron Proctor, missed out on a place in the final for the top four point scorers, which instead went to the unheralded, but impressive, 19-year-old Josh Pickering, from Heddon Greta in New South Wales.

Pickering was the only rider to beat Masters, passing him on the third lap to win heat two, and finished with three wins and a last place in a tough heat eleven against Sedgmen, Woodward and Fricke.

Sedgmen started the night in the best possible way with a track record in heat one, had a good win in the previously mentioned tough heat eleven, and dropped his only point to Masters in heat fifteen when two points was still going to be enough to guarantee a start in the final.

The remaining finalist, Cameron Woodward, was the biggest surprise of the night, even more so than Pickering. After being unable to ride for two years because of a serious leg injury sustained in Poland, and with the leg still not one hundred percent right, Woodward was very impressive and looked like he’d never been off the bike. His only dropped point was a five metre loss to Sedgmen in heat eleven and he was looking like a very welcome addition to the Solo ranks this season but sadly it all went awry in the final.

The final saw Masters race away and set up a comfortable lead but there was a close race between Sedgmen, Woodward and Pickering for the minor placings until Woodward fell and slid into the fence attempting an outside pass on Sedgmen between turns one and two on the third lap. He was able to get to his feet with assistance, albeit gingerly, but after the meeting he was taken to hospital and reportedly had an operation the following day, although no details were available at the time of writing.

With positions unlikely to change the result was declared as Masters, Sedgmen, Pickering, with Woodward excluded. For his win Masters received a trophy donated by former Czech Republic World Speedway, Long Track and Ice Racing finalist Vaclav Verner and presented by Vaclav’s daughter, Denisa Loužecká.

Of the non-qualifiers for the final the best were Proctor, who only missed out on a countback with Pickering, and Fricke who scored 8 points.

There was nothing much between the other riders but for local fans it was pleasing to see injury victims Robert Medson and Dakota Ballantyne back in action and riding well. Medson was returning after eighteen months on the sidelines following a back injury at Gillman, and, like Woodward, looked like he’d never been away, and scored a well-earned 6 points. The less experienced 17-year-old Ballantyne was facing 12 months out with a badly damaged knee but returned to racing after only six months and despite saying he had a hard time getting comfortable on the bike, it wasn’t apparent to the onlookers, and looked like he just needed more track time to build his speed up.

The 500cc Solo Support races saw an impressive debut by 16-year-old Mitchell Grech who won his first two races and finished as equal top scorer with Jack Morrison, both finishing with two wins and a third.

The 250cc (Under 16) Solo races had a good line-up of riders from around Australia and resulted in some close racing for the top two placings in each grade. In Group 1 World number three Jedd List got the better of World Champion Matthew Gilmore, winning two of their three races to finish with 8 points to Gilmore’s 7; and it was a similar result in the other groups with Brayden McGuiness winning Group 2 with 8 points to Jack Norman’s 7; and Liam May winning Group 3 with 8 points to Tom Dixon’s 7.

Maurice Brown (NSW) was unbeaten in the 125cc Under 16 races, and finished a point ahead of Queenslanders Jacob Hook and Cordell Rogerson.

The Sidecars were exciting, as usual, with several riders showing good first up form for what will be a big season at Gillman with the State, Australian, Oceania and World (Cup) Championship meetings all at the venue.

Russell Mitchell/Andy Gajek, Mick Headland/Brenton Kerr and Mark Mitchell/Luke Mitchell were the standout pairs in Group 1. Russell Mitchell got the better of Headland in their heat, but Headland reversed the result in the final and scored a narrow win after he and Mitchell exchanged the lead several times. Shane Rudloff/Scott Morris recovered from a heavy crash in their last heat to finish third in the final while Mark Mitchell retired but had already been excluded for going infield.

Mark Mitchell had a mixed night with a last place in his first heat after he reared at the start, but won his other two heats including a win over Russell Mitchell.

The Group 2 Sidecar races were dominated by Rick Stephens/Nick O’Brien and Dean Hobbs/Justin Richards who were both unbeaten, and both won their races convincingly and in fast times.