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

October 24, 2017 by Gillman Media

The South Australian and Australian 500cc Solo Championships return to Gillman Speedway again this season with the Littlehampton Bricks South Australian Championship coming up very soon, in just over five weeks on Saturday 2 December.

This will be the 18th time the event has been held at Gillman and the most successful rider in that time has been current champion Troy Batchelor who has won six times which places him third on the all-time winners’ list behind Jack Young and John Boulger who both won 9 times.

The South Australian Under 16 250cc Solo Championship will also be held on 2 December as support to the main event. Nominations for both events, through the Gillman Speedway website, close on Sunday 26 November 2107.

In the new year, the CBS Bins Australian Championship will be held at Gillman for the 14th consecutive year, a record for any track around Australia. This season the meeting, which will be the deciding round, will be held on a Sunday night, 14 January.

The preceding rounds will be at Kurri Kurri NSW on 6 January, Undera Vic on 10 January, and Mildura Vic on 12 January, and this season all four rounds will be live streamed globally via a new Australian Speedway Championships website.

Motorcycling Australia and NRG TV have come together to broadcast the Championship rounds live, and Kevin Williams of NRG TV said “Every show will feature a half hour preview before each round with three-time World Champion, Jason Crump hosting and previewing each track with hot laps on a bike fitted with cameras”.

Subscription options and links will be available on www.australianspeedwaychampionships.com.au from 1 December. The website also has the latest news and event information.

Nominations for the Australian Championship close with Motorcycling Australia at 5pm Tuesday 8 December.

Photo: Justin Sedgmen (blue) and Troy Batchelor in action at Gillman Speedway last season. Photo by Mike Gerlach JDM Photos.

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.