Father and son rise to the top in Gillman Easter meeting
Gillman Media 6 April 2026
The Headland father and son duo of Trent and Nate Headland rose to the top again at the Ray White Gawler Stadium (Gillman Speedway) on Saturday night when they took first and second in the Ray White Gawler 2026 FIM Oceania Speedway Sidecar Championship.
Despite having close to the strongest field available in Australia at the moment, Mark Plaisted/Ben Pitt, Trent Headland/Jaxon Rayner and Tyler Moon/Adam Lovell were the standout pre-meeting favourites by virtue of being the current Australia 1-2-3. Also all three had won trophy events at Gillman this season — Headland/Rayner the Gillman Championship and Paintmaster SA Spectacular, Moon/Lovell the Jim Irwin Cup and Plaisted/Pitt the Bob White Cup.
Nothing in the first round of heats suggested the pre-meeting prediction would be wrong. Headland/Rayner and Moon/Lovell were drawn together in heat one which Headland won, with Moon second, while Plaisted/Pitt won heat three. Two other in-form teams this season, Byren Gates/Damian Egan and Brian Silvy/Glen Zaworski won the other two heats, but Headland/Rayner looked on fire as they were a whopping 2.433 seconds faster than the next best time (Gates/Egan), and also broke the long-standing 1 lap record time on lap two, on another fast, smooth and safe track which curators Seane Chapman and Adam Possingham have been preparing all season.
The second round was much the same for Headland/Rayner as their heat time was the fastest by 1.762 seconds (again from Gates/Egan). Gates/Egan and Silvy/Zaworski also won again to leave them unbeaten after two rounds, but Plaisted/Pitt dropped a point to Headland/Rayner. The second round didn’t go well for Moon/Lovell however. With Shane Rudloff/Kane Golding leading reserves Josh Pascoe/Dale Knights in heat six, Moon/Lovell and Gates/Egan, fighting for third, collided and spun to a halt bringing on the red lights. Moon/Lovell were adjudged to be at fault and were excluded. It was the start of a bad run for them, and probably their worst night at Gillman as they could only muster 5 points and were well short of a semi-final berth. Fortunately for them they bounced back well at Mildura the following night, winning the dash-for-cash and going unbeaten in the heats before finishing fourth in the final.
Pascoe/Knights had come into the meeting as replacements for Taylor Green/Callum Innes. The Kiwis looked like they would be serious contenders after a close second to Plaisted/Pitt in heat three, but their engine gave out as they crossed the line, forcing them out for the night and facing a change of engines overnight for Mildura the next day.
Gates/Egan were up against Headland/Rayner in heat nine and it was Headland/Rayner winning again after Gates/Egan were the early leaders for the first lap and a half, and when Rick Stephens/Nick O’Brien beat Silvy/Zaworski in the next race – a thrilling race with second reserves Byron Mordaunt/Scott Cameron and Moon/Lovell also in the mix, Headland/Rayner were the only unbeaten team after 10 heats. They didn’t manage the fastest time of the round this time however, with Kym Menadue/Shane Dolan and Nate Headland/Harry Hearne both scoring their first wins of the night in faster times. Both wins were crackers too. Headland/Hearne passed Plaisted/Pitt twice to win heat 11, and Menadue/Dolan came from last to beat Brodie Cohen/Jesse Headland, Shane Hudson/Jack Spear and Pascoe/Knights in heat 12.
Menadue/Dolan then backed up with the shock of the night with a clear cut win over Headland/Rayner in the next race. With Headland/Hearne and Plaisted/Pitt also winning in the fourth round, points with one round of heats to go were Headland/Rayner 11, Plaisted/Pitt 10, Gates/Egan 9, Menadue/Dolan 9, Headland/Hearne 8, Cohen/Headland 8, Silvy/Zaworski 8, with Stephens/O’Brien 6, Moon/Lovell 5, Hudson/Spear 5 the only others with an outside, but unlikely, chance of earning a semi-final berth.
In the last round Headland/Rayner beat Silvy/Zaworski in heat 17; Plaisted/Pitt beat Menadue/Dolan in heat 18; Headland/Hearne beat Gates/Egan in heat 19; and Cohen/Headland won heat 20 to leave the points as Headland/Rayner 14, Plaisted/Pitt 13, Headland/Hearne 11, Cohen/Headland 11, Gates/Egan 11, Menadue/Dolan 11 and Silvy/Zaworski 10 as the finalists, with Headland/Hearne winning the countback for the third place in the final.
The other three eleven pointers could not be separated by the countback and had to draw lots for choice of gate positions in the semi-final. Cohen, who probably looked better than any other time at Gillman, won the draw, took red, and then led all the way from Menadue/Dolan, Silvy/Zaworski and Gates/Egan to advance to the final.
For the final Headland/Rayner were in red, Plaisted/Pitt in blue, Headland/Hearne in white and Cohen/Headland in yellow. From the start Headland/Rayner went straight into the lead and Headland/Hearne got the better of Plaisted/Pitt through turn two and down the back straight to take second. And that is how it stayed with Plaisted/Pitt and Cohen/Headland in an almighty scrap for third, side-by-side for much of the race, just behind Headland/Hearne until it went pear-shaped with just one lap of the season remaining. Going through turn four on the third lap Plaisted/Pitt appeared to get slightly sideways and Cohen/Headland, in taking avoiding action, crashed heavily, rolling along the main straight before finishing on the track in front of the control tower. Plaisted/Pitt were adjudged to be at fault and were excluded, and Cohen, although not suffering any broken bones, was in no state to ride in the rerun so it was a two bike race in which Trent Headland/Jaxon Rayner had no trouble taking their first FIM Oceania Championship crown.
Saturday night was the last meeting of the 25/26 summer season, but there will be more action on 18 April when the rescheduled Gillman Speedway Classic Championships and David Adams Tribute meeting will be held after being rained off back in October.
