IPSWICH TEENAGER CLAIMS NATIONAL CROWN ON DEBUT

SPEEDWAY AUSTRALIA MEDIA RELEASE

All Photos by: Butcher Photography/Speedway Australia Riley Silcock – the 2024 Australian Modlite Champion.

Ripley teenager Ryan Silcock has upstaged his more established rivals to claim the Australian Modlite Championship at Grafton Speedway (NSW) over Easter.

Since debuting in the 1100cc powered Modlites in mid-2023, Silcock displayed immediate talent by winning the South Australian title, and now the 17-year-old has instantly added the Australian title trophy to his cabinet in a dominant display throughout the two-day event.

“This means a lot. I started out in Dirt Karts and one or two state titles  and then moved to bitumen karts when I was about 10 or 11, but now we’ve moved to Modlites and it feels really good.”

“I trusted the way dad set up the car. We’ve been trying a lot of stuff and it certainly paid off tonight. You can’t really explain it. It’s sensational.”

Silcock was in outstanding form throughout the two-night Australian Championship, where he topped the point standings on night one and then carried that form through to the second and final night by qualifying on pole position for the Australian Title deciding feature race and dominating the entire 25-lap journey.

Despite coming out on top, Silcock was very lucky to finish, after he was involved in an incident on lap 21 with the crashing lapped car of B-main qualifier Jacob Carlier, which caused front-end damage to Silcock’s car.

In the closing stages, Silcock’s front-end damage got worse, and he greeted the chequered flag on pretty much three wheels, after his inside front wheel had collapsed.

Despite his very best efforts, one of the title’s pre-event favourites and current NSW, Queensland and Victorian Champion in Corey Stein, who had chased after Silcock when he moved up to second on lap 16, had to settle for second, while third place on the podium was taken out by Terry Leerentveld. The former Australian Title holder sat in second behind Silcock for the first half of the race, before he was passed by Stein for second place.

The top-five finishers were completed by another ex-Australian titleholder in Kyle Honour and Mitch Pammenter in fourth and fifth place respectively.

Nathan Politch, Zak Hudson, Chris Corbett, defending Australian Champion Sam Gollschewsky and Tyson Snow rounded out the top-10 finishers.