INTERNATIONALS AT GILLMAN SPEEDWAY DECEMBER 3

Feature photo: Rory Schlein will make a rare appearance at Adelaide’s Gillman Speedway this Saturday night. Photo by: Judy Mackay.

International Solo riders and some of Australia’s best Sidecar exponents are amongst a big line-up of competitors who will compete in four track championships at Adelaide’s Gillman Speedway on Saturday night, December 3.

The 500cc Solo Championship will be spearheaded by international riders Adam Ellis (England), Jaimon Lidsey and Justin Sedgmen (Vic), and a surprise entrant in four-time South Australian Champion Rory Schlein.

Twenty-six year-old Adam Ellis was the 2021 British Champion and is making his first appearance at Gillman. He is based in Mildura for the summer and was expecting to ride in a host of big meetings there, but with the floods disrupting their season he’s decided to ride in this meeting at Gillman.

Rory Schlein is also a former British Championship, winning in 2020, and while no stranger to Gillman, this will be a rare racing appearance here for him, his first since 2011.

Lidsey is the current Victorian Champion, and a former World Under 21 Champion, and Sedgmen is the current South Australian titleholder and a four-time Victorian Champion, winning three-in-a-row before finishing second to Lidsey this season.

Other riders favoured to reach the semi-final or final stage include the defending champion, former New Zealand Under 21 Champion Jake Turner, Mildura’s Cooper Riordan, local riders Fraser Bowes and Liam May, who both have racing experience in Denmark, Germany and Poland, and WA’s Matthew Marson, who has raced in the United Kingdom.

The Sidecar Championship is headed by two of Australia’s leading pairs, Mark Plaisted and Ben Pitt, and Mick Headland and Brenton Kerr.

Plaisted/Pitt are the current Australian and South Australian Champions, while Headland is a former FIM Gold Trophy and Track Racing World Championship winner. Both have been four-time winners of the SA Championship but while they are the obvious favourites, former Australia number three, Shane Hudson, could be a serious challenger as he and passenger Adam Constable were in good form at the end of last season and have been impressive in recent Gillman practice days.

But they also face a host of other challengers with seven other riders from the most recent Australian Championship meetings — Damien Niesche/Mitchell Spear, Byren Gates/Michael O’Loughlin (Vic), Shane Rudloff/Damian Egan, Kym Menadue/Shane Dolan, Max Howse/Riley Commons (NSW), Kane Golding/tba, Rick Stephens/Nick O’Brien (NSW/SA) — plus the three reserves from last season’s Australian Championship — Brian Silvy/Dean Cottrell, Chris Walker/April Cottrell (Vic), Dean Hobbs/Daniel Low — and former New Zealand Champion Mike Zachan (passenger Ben Franklin), who is making his first appearance at Gillman.

Rudloff and Stephens are also former winners of the track championship, as is Tim Bichard, while Brian Silvy, Nathan Fleet, Dean Hobbs and Aaron Silvy have all been placegetters in the track championship.

Five riders will contest the 250cc Junior (Under 16) Solo Championship including three of the semi-finalists in last week’s Australian Championship, Ashley Jansen-Batchelor, Linkin Metcalf (WA) and Harry Sadler, which should result in some close and exciting racing. Unfortunately new Australian Champion Mitchell McDiarmid (WA) has had to withdraw with a broken finger.

The fourth title will be for the 125cc Junior (Under 16) Solos on the infield track during the track grades for the main events and the favourites are Cooper Antone (NSW) and Kobi Canning, who finished 1-2 in the Victorian Championship, and 1-3 in the NSW Championship.

Gates open at 4pm, racing starts at 7pm, and the meeting will be live streamed.

Please note the grandstand is not available for this meeting due to refurbishment.