JUSTIN PLAISTED / BRIAN ANTHONY RETAIN BOB WHITE CUP

Feature photo by: Jude Mackay…Justin Plaisted retained the Bob White Sidecar Cup at Adelaide’s Gillman Speedway on Saturday night (15 March), winning the final with ease, but the night wasn’t all plain sailing for Plaisted and passenger Brian Anthony.

They started the meeting as outright favourites, and nothing in the first two rounds changed that as they won easily in the fastest times of both rounds, but things went awry in their third ride when they got slightly crossed up in turn four, were passed by Max Howse/Riley Commons and Shane Rudloff/Damien Egan, and were unable to regain the lead.

Things got worse back in the pits when they discovered a faulty water pump which caused them to miss their fourth ride and relegated them to the last chance semi-final, but thereafter it was business as usual as they won heat twenty, the semi-final and the final easily.

Starters in the final, along with Plaisted/Anthony, were Max Howse and Riley Commons, on 13 points, Rick Stephens and Nick O’Brien, also on 13 and Kym Menadue and Shane Dolan on 12, and while Plaisted/Anthony race away for the win, most eyes were on the other three as they had a race long duel for the other placings.

Stephens/O’Brien, in their fifth Bob White Cup final, were in second place from the start and looked like breaking their run of fourth place finishes in the Cup, but Howse/Commons got under them on the third lap and it briefly looked like Menadue/Dolan were also going to get under them, pushing them back to fourth place again, but instead Stephens was able to get under Howse to finish second, with Howse third and Menadue fourth as they crossed the line wheel-to-wheel.

The supporting 500cc Solo races were dominated by Sam Martin who won each heat but there was plenty of interest in the debut of Jack Norman. Norman won the Australian Under 16 125cc Championship as a 13-year-old in 2015, ahead of Keynan Rew, Jaimon Lidsey and Matthew Gilmore, but he never went into senior speedway and Saturday night was his first speedway meeting in over seven years and his first ever on a 500cc bike. He started cautiously and was running in third in his first ride before second-placed Riley Plum fell, but he improved with each ride and was pushing Martin by the end of the night. Jack is the son of former South Australian Champion, and British League rider, Scott Norman, and had another former British League rider, Aaron Summers, helping him in the pits.

While 17-year-old Riley Plum couldn’t match Sam Martin and Jack Norman in the speedway class, it was a different story in the Flat Track Solo class where he won each of his rides, despite starting from an 80 metre handicap, to maintain an unbeaten record in his appearances at Gillman this season.

Another Riley, 10-year-old Riley Stout, was also unbeaten in the Under 16 125cc Solo Races on the infield junior track, while Aaron Silvy/Jaron Silvy, on the #53 Chris Rae bike, were the best of the Classic Sidecars.

The next meeting, on 29 March, will be the final meeting of the season and will feature the FIM Oceania Sidecar Championship including Darrin Treloar, Mark Plaisted, Trent Headland, Justin Plaisted and Tyler Moon.