A CLASSIC NIGHT AT GILLMAN

Feature photo by: Judy Mackay

Gillman Media November 3, 2024

The Classic Solos and Sidecars provided an entertaining night’s racing at Gillman Speedway on Saturday night in their annual championships meeting.

Although competitor numbers were low they produced some close and willing racing — perhaps at times too willing for this level of racing — but thankfully everyone got through the meeting safely, and at the presentations the riders were full of praise for the track preparation by Seane Chapman and Adam Possingham.

The first championship decided was the two valve Solo class for riders aged 40 or over, which also carried the Jeff Fisher Perpetual Trophy, and this, as expected, was won by Steven Graetz, on Fisher’s ESO, but Darryl Christopher pushed him all night and led him in the opening heat before Graetz suffered a flat tyre on the third lap. Denis Hall finished third.

The Japanese Sidecar class saw some close racing between Aaron Silvy/Jaron Silvy, Wayne Lethbridge/Grantley Simounds and Peter Engels/Angela Macfarlane but Silvy was out after two heat wins and with Pieter Hoogland/Liam Sherwood also out, the final was a match race between Lethbridge and Engels. They were side-by-side for a couple of laps, with Engels on the outside, but when he tried to switch to the inside down the back straight he ran off the track, cutting the corner in turn three, leaving Lethbridge to an unchallenged win.

The British Sidecar class was the one most people came to see and they didn’t disappoint with some exciting racing between Dennis Nash/Jaron Silvy, Darren Nash/Greg Black and Mark Mitchell/Tony Carter on the Vincents, and George Atherton/Nick John’s on Geoff Baran’s 850cc Norton Commando. All four bikes led at different times during the heat races before Darren Nash (heat 1) and Mark Mitchell (heats two and three) took the wins, but it was Dennis Nash/Jaron Silvy who led all the way to win the final narrowly from Mitchell, Darren Nash and Atherton.

A couple of scratchings reduced the Evolution Sidecar class to only three bikes, but they still produced close racing with Chris Rae/Jamie Flood and Chris Abriani/Rodney Higgins fighting out the final all the way before Rae took the win, with Abriani second and Wayne Lethbridge/Grantley Simounds third.

Robert Branford was a hot favourite for the upright four valve Solo class, but as the old saying goes “to finish first, first you have to finish”. Branford raced away to set up a big lead in his first heat but pulled to the infield on the last lap and was then out for the night. In his absence Teagan Pedler went on to win that race, her other two heats, and then the final ahead of John Doolan and Brett Tomkins. The championship win was the fourth in a row in the four valve class for Pedler. Brett Tomkins, who won the Australian Under 16 125cc championship back in 1989 by beating Jason Crump in a run-off, looked like he might upset the form guide when he raced to an early lead in the final, but it was his first competitive meeting in 25 years and he tired a lot after the first couple of laps.

The final race of the night was the wildest and most controversial as Chris Rae/Jamie Flood and Dean Hobbs/Daniel Low constantly exchanged the lead, with Lee Banks/Adam Lange and Chris Abriani/Rodney Higgins also in the mix. After some aggressive passing moves by the riders during the race, and four lead changes on the last two laps, it was Rae/Flood who took the win, and the Brian Schultz Perpetual Cup, ahead of Hobbs, Banks and Abriani.

The opening of the summer season at Gillman is this Saturday night, 9 November.