SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SOLO CHAMPIONSHIP UP FOR GRABS

Feature photo by: Judy Mackay…Frazer Bowes and Justin sedgemen pictured here in last seasons SA Championship final.

Adelaide speedway fans are in for an exciting night’s racing Saturday night, November 30, when the South Australian 500cc Solo Championship is decided at Gillman Speedway.

Riders from South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Victoria, New South Wales, New Zealand and England have entered for the event, including quite a few Adelaide fans have not seen before.

Only one former winner, Merbein’s Justin Sedgmen, is in the line-up. Sedgmen is the defending champion, a three-time winner, and has a tremendous record of being a finalist in 11 of his 13 appearances, which gives him the right to start as the favourite, but he’ll face strong opposition from local star Fraser Bowes, who was runner-up to Sedgmen in 2022 and 2024; Bendigo’s Jack Morrison, who was a finalist in the last two titles; New South Wales riders Mitchell Cluff and Michael West, who, like Bowes, both raced in the Polish Under-24 League this year; and English rider Sam Hagon.

Other riders, who will make racing fierce for a place in the final or semi-final, are 16-year-old newly crowned Western Australian Champion Mitch McDiarmid (another rider with some experience in the Polish U24 League), promising NSW riders Reid Battye and Brad Page, who have ridden well at Darcy Ward’s meetings in Queensland over the winter, Mildura’s Dayle Wood and Patrick Hamilton, experienced local rider Sam Martin and our exciting 16-year-old first year riders Ashley Jansen-Batchelor and Harry Sadler, New Zealand South Island Champion and current NZ3 Ben Whalley, Steven Graetz (SA), Jack McDiarmid (WA), Isaiah Hartley (Vic) and Steven Hutchinson (NT).

The format of the championship is 20 heats with the highest three point scorers going into a final along with the winner of a last-chance semi-final for the fourth to seventh highest scorers.

Five riders — Sedgmen, Bowes, Morrison and West, based on last season’s results, and Hagon — have been seeded into the heats, while the other riders will all have the chance to qualify via time trials.

The time trials will start at 7pm, following a minute’s silence for Flat Track rider Troy Knights at 6.55pm.

Support events will be the SA 250cc Solo Championship, Flat Track Solos and 125cc Junior Solos.

Competitors:

Solos 500cc SA Championship: Seeded riders: Justin Sedgmen (Vic), Fraser Bowes (SA), Jack Morrison (Vic), Michael West (NSW), Sam Hagon (Eng). Qualifying: Ashley Jansen-Batchelor (SA), Reid Battye (NSW), Mitchell Cluff (NSW), Steven Graetz (SA), Patrick Hamilton (Vic), Isaiah Hartley (Vic), Steven Hutchinson (NT), Sam Martin (SA), Jack McDiarmid (WA), Mitchell McDiarmid (WA), Bradley Page (NSW), Harry Sadler (SA), Ben Whalley (NZ), Dayle Wood (Vic)

Under 16 250cc Solos SA Championship: Ruby Chapman (SA), Xavier Hawtin (Vic), Angus Hume (Vic), Nate Smith (Vic)

Flat Track Solos: Graeme Eberhard, Dale Knights, Greg Laanekorb, Dylan McKenzie, Andrew Rost, Kristy Schultz, Con Twist

Juniors (on the infield track during the main track grades): 125cc Solos: Division 1: William Nicol, Blake Schlein (Vic), Riley Stout. Division 2: Owen Chapman, Cooper Karpinski, Nate Sadler. Novices (non-competitive): Axel Smith, Koby Smith. Pee Wees: Kolby Schultz.