Exciting winter finale at Gillman Speedway

October 8, 2018 by Gillman Media

The final Adelaide round of the 500cc Solo teams’ winter development program again produced some entertaining racing at Gillman Speedway on Saturday (October 6).

With the summer season starting up around Australia, both teams found themselves short-handed and utilising rider replacement, but that, and the larger than usual margin, did not detract from the racing with some exciting races throughout the afternoon, starting from heat one, which featured four of the gun riders and resulted in a win for Justin Sedgmen from Robert Branford, Ryan Douglas and Robert Medson after a hard fought race.

The Bulls took the lead, which they were to hold throughout the rest of the match, with a 5-1 in heat two which included an impressive 500cc debut ride by 16-year-old Connor Bailey.

Another 5-1 followed in heat three with Dakota Ballantyne and Brayden McGuinness riding side by side to thwart the determined efforts of Kane Lawrence to split them.

Trailing by 8 points after four heats, the Robins gained a 6-3 heat win in heat five courtesy of a double-points win by Sedgmen but that was as close as they were to get.

With no real team allegiances, the scores were of little interest to the spectators who were just enjoying the close racing and heat seven was one of the best of the day with four lead changes between Branford and Lawrence before Branford took the win.

Lawrence also figured in a good ride in heat ten when he was on a double-points ride against the Bulls top two scorers, Douglas and Ballantyne, and managed to split them on the second lap and then hold off Ballantyne for the rest of the race.

Heat 12 was another good race with Morrison, McGuinness and Bailey wheel-to-wheel; as was heat 13, with a good ride by Medson to beat Branford. They crossed the line side by side with Medson getting the nod from the Ref, but it was only for second place behind Douglas who won quite easily.

Douglas won easily again in the final heat but Ballantyne, Morrison and Medson were wheel-to-wheel for the other placings to finish off a good day’s racing and a good winter season.

The emphasis changes slightly now at the speedway with Round 4 of the Australian Supercross Championship on October 20, followed by the Stadium-X Development Series the next day (October 21), both on a track being constructed inside the speedway track; then the annual Gillman Classic Championships on November 3 before the summer season starts with International Solo riders the feature attraction at the opening meeting on November 17.

Top photo: Exciting heat one action from Justin Sedgmen (white), Robert Medson (yellow), Robert Branford (blue), Ryan Douglas (red). Photo by Derick Thomas.