GILLMAN SPEEDWAY: PLAISTED AND PITT RETAIN SA SIDECAR TITLE

By Gillman Speedway Media

Defending champions Mark Plaisted and Ben Pitt retained their South Australian Sidecar Championship at Gillman Speedway on Saturday night, February 24.

The win was their fifth as a team, equalling Darrin Treloar/Justin Plaisted for the most victories, and it was Plaisted’s sixth success as rider. This result put him just one win behind Treloar as the most successful titlist.

Plaisted is also the first South Australian rider to win three times in succession.

Unfortunately celebrations were somewhat muted, and the trophy presentation was seen by very few people after a four-bike crash in the semi-final caused the final to eventually be cancelled and the championship decided on the heat points of the four finalists, after a lengthy delay while injured teenage star Nate Headland received medical attention.

The direct qualifiers for the final, and ultimately then the first three placegetters in the championship were Mark Plaisted/Ben Pitt with 14 point, Justin Plaisted/Damian Egan 13 and Trent Headland/April Cottrell 12. Nate Headland/Jaxon Rayner (9) were awarded the win in the semi-final and with it fourth place in the championship.

Mark Plaisted dropped his only point to Trent Headland in their first ride, heat four, which Headland led from start to finish. Plaisted was untroubled to win his other four rides to score his 14 points. Headland also won four of his five rides but unfortunately for him and April Cottrell, they were excluded from their third ride for going infield in the first corner. Likewise, Justin Plaisted also won four of his rides, but he dropped two points in his second ride when beaten by his brother Mark, and surprise packets Damien Niesche/Adam Niesche.

Niesche is, or course, a recognised A grade rider, but this was his first appearance for the season at Gillman Speedway, and more importantly, his first with teenage son Adam as passenger (replacing the injured Mitchell Spear), but they looked good and potential finalists for much of the night, chalking up 10 points from their first four rides.

A win against Trent Headland in heat 19 would have put them into the final. It was a big ask as Trent was looking a serious threat to take the title from Plaisted, but surprisingly Niesche was off the pace and finished last behind Headland, Chris Walker/Jamie Flood and Rick Stephens/Nick O’Brien, leaving them on 10 points. That was still enough for a semi-final berth though and they lined up against Mick Headland/Jesse Headland (11), Nate Headland/Jaxon Rayner (9) and Max Howse/Riley Commons (8). Just missing a place on countback were Dean Hobbs/Daniel Low. The final place was decided in the final heat when Howse finished second, and Hobbs third behind Mark Plaisted.

Mick Headland, riding with son Jesse for the first time in about eight years (replacing injured Brenton Kerr), took a few races to get dialled in but won his last two heats and after seeing off several strong challenges from his grandson Nate, looked set to win the semi-final until a terrible last corner crash. Realising Nate was looking for an inside pass, Mick rode a tight line on the last lap, rather than his usual high, fence-scraping line, but going into the last corner his bike seized. Nate was right behind him and could not avoid a collision which threw him and passenger Jaxon Rayner onto the track in front of the closely following Niesche and Howse who were exchanging third and fourth places. Like Nate, neither rider had any chance of avoiding a collision, Niesche unfortunately running straight into Nate, while Howse crashed in Mick’s bike. Amazing everyone walked away from the crash except for Nate who required lengthy medical treatment.

With the meeting already running well over time after two previous crashes (involving Wayne Lethbridge/Grantley Simounds and Aaron Silvy/Jaron Silvy), there was no indication how long the badly injured Headland would be on the track receiving medial attention. With Nate, who was awarded the win in the semi-final, and father Trent unable to start in any final, it was decided after consultation with the riders, to cancel the final and decide the championship on the heat points of the four finalists.

The news on the injured riders on Sunday was Nate Headland has broken the femur bones of both legs which required surgery, while Wayne Lethbridge, Grantley Simounds, and Jaron Silvy were all at home, sore but without any serious injuries.

The SA Division 2 Championship was not held due to insufficient riders. Programmed as a 12 rider event, the field was down to 7 before the meeting had started, then 4 by the first heat, and then 3 after Wayne Lethbridge crashed.

The various medical delays resulted in several Flat Track Solo races being deleted but in those that were run Kyle Machin was unbeaten in Group One, and Julian Timmis was unbeaten in Group Two. Riley Stout won he 125cc Junior Solo final ahead of Connor Machin, with Hayden Pascoe and Hayden Kuchel both excluded.

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SIDECAR CHAMPIONSHIP WRAP.

By Mark Neale

Before I get into my overall summary of the 2024 Safe Fire Electrical sponsored South Australian Sidecar Championship at Gillman Speedway on Saturday February 24, I would like to offer my best wishes to talented youngster Nate Headland who is in the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Nate is recovering from surgery after he sustained two broken femurs in an horrific accident in the semi final along with Aaron/Jaron Silvy and Wayne Lethbridge/Grant Simounds who are all battered and bruised and are home from hospital recovering from separate accidents.

Nate’s mum Janelle Fox his grand mother Kaz O’Brien are flying over from Western Australia to be with her son as he recovers from surgery and gets back on his feet.

Also thinking of the lady in the crowd who was taken to hospital due to a heart condition.

The seventy-fourth staging of the event(and the 19th time-the last 17 in a row) that Gillman have held the title saw probably the largest crowd of the season go through the turnstiles and pack the terraces on a nice evening to witness the staging of the title.

The track was prepared brilliantly by the track maintenance team led by Seane Chapman.

As reported, triple Australian Champion Mark Plaisted and passenger Ben Pitt were declared the winners of the SA Sidecar Championship after the accident and the results stood.

The Plaisted/Pitt team won on 14 points ahead of four times Australian Champion Justin Plaisted /Damian Egan (13 points) and former Australian and South Australian Champion Trent Headland and female passenger April Cottrell third on 12 points.

Nate Headland and his passenger Jaxon Rayner were officially fourth on nine points.

Semi final leader Mick Headland/ Jesse Headland were leading the race when the motor blew and they came to a halt on the final corner of the last lap. The Headland/Rayner team were close behind and crashed into them and what followed was a shocking scene when Damien Niesche / Adam Niesche collected young Nate and Broken Hill’s Max Howse/Riley Commons were also involved.

The race was declared and the Headland team of Mick and Jesse were excluded.

It was the fifth time in six years the Plaisted/Pitt team have won the title and the sixth time Plaisted has won the event.

He won back in 2013 with Sam Gilbert as his passenger and sits one behind Darrin Treloar,who has won seven titles, five of those are with Justin Plaisted.

Programme editor Graeme Frost produced another outstanding edition of the souvenir programme for fans to purchase from the gates or the Souvenir shop which is run by Eileen Price and her daughter Ielona. That was my first point of call once I got my seat out on the elevated decking of the Bob White VIP room which is a great view of the entire circuit

I walked through the pits before they were shut to the public for the qualifying time trials (for the remaining 12 spots after four were seeded by the local Speedway Committee).

It was an early start to the meeting and it was great to catch up with so many familiar faces from years gone by for a chat. It was good to see dual SA Champ Chris Rae and Greg Black (who is still a passenger today after winning back to back titles in 1990 and 91 with Peter Fleet), former Victorian Champ Martien Hurkmans (who I had a long chat to about the past and what we are both up to now. It must be over twenty years since we have seen each other), his championship winning passenger Darren Pascoe (who was in the pits helping his son Josh out)

Others who I caught up with included Angela Macfarlane (formerly Angela Rohde), who formerly rode for her brother Ron Rohde around forty years ago, former riders Ronny Parker, Jason Hardy Tony Shield, his wife Michelle Shield and I also met their son Ash for the first time. The Shield family bought their bike over from the West for Mark Mitchell to ride.

Others I spoke with were Dave Bottrell,Trent Headland Justin Plaisted, Troy Davies, Damien Niesche and Mick Headland,(who I haven’t seen all of them in many years)along with meeting Ben Pitt for the first time.

Nice to catch up with Kym Menadue, Shane Dolan and Shane Rudloff again

Also meeting up with a lot of the long time officials from the old North Arm days and now involved with Gillman.

They included Mr Ivan Golding (OAM) his wife Shirley, former neighbour Brett Tomkins (who I must thank for the CAT Jack Miller cap to add to my collection), track announcer Laurie O’Connell, Phil Turnbull, former riders Barry Golding (who was the Clkerk of Course for the night, track electrician Ross Noble, pit steward Cory Richardson, Mary Mundy Mike Gerlach and long time family friends Judy Mackay and her husband Phil Mackay, Russell and Lorraine Day, Trevor Anderson, Judy Schultz and her daughter Kristy Schultz, Jan and Trevor Plaisted.

I also met Nickie West and Karine Headland for the first time. It was nice to speak face to face with young Karine who I have swapped messages with for many years.

It was also good to see young Rob Wilson from the UK, who is part of the Plaisted/Pitt team.

Back in the Bob White VIP room, I was again part of the David Adams and the Paintmasters SA Group which included duel SA championship winning passenger, and Gillman Promoter Dave Parker and Peter Mason. Others whom I had a chat with were Nigel Sadler and his son Harry, Shane Bowes (spoke about his son Fraser), Arlo Bugeja and his sister Shelley Bugeja, Christopher Bottrell, Matt Muldoon and his partner Kylie Mahoney and Jade Rudloff.

It was great to see former Thorndon High School mate David Maybe who had a season or two a few years ago as passenger for Dave Bottrell.

A nice surprise was catching up with Lorraine Fleet, meeting her daughter in law Dannie Fleet and her two sons Jake and Anders. It’s been a few years since I have spoken to Lorraine. We talked at length about the past and what’s happened in our lives during the last few years since Covid 19.

The Bob White Room was flat out all night with Chris Bugeja, Lina Bugeja Allan, Michele Wethers and her husband Brian and Ricky Summers serving food, drinks and selling raffle tickets to the large crowd in attendance

A big thank you to Seane Chapman, Ruby Chapman and young Owen for the ride home.