Hot racing on a cold night at Gillman Speedway

Gillman Media 9 November 2026

It was bitterly cold on the terraces at Gillman Speedway on Saturday night (7 November), but fans were compensated for sitting in the arctic conditions by some hot racing in the Gillman Speedway Sidecar Championship.

Although only 10 riders nominated for the championship, all 10 contributed to an exciting night, as they all diced for the placings in every heat, and were often three, almost four, wide.

In the end, however, no matter how close the racing, there can only be one winner and this year it was the combination of Justin Plaisted and Brian Anthony. The win was the first for Plaisted as a rider, after winning three times as a passenger for Darrin Treloar, and the second for Anthony who had won previously as passenger for Mark Plaisted.

With 10 riders organisers had no choice but to run five in a heat, with the point scoring adjusted to 4-3-2-1, and Plaisted/Anthony finished with the maximum possible 16 points. Nate Headland and Harry Hearne, with 13 points, joined them as the other direct qualifiers for the final with the other eight going into two semi-finals.

With all riders in the mix during the heats, both semi-finals looked wide open.

The first semi-final brought together Brian Silvy/Glen Zaworski (10 points), Kym Menadue/Shane Dolan (8) and Brenten Dwyer/Jarrad Katzorke (5), with Thomas Adams/Seth Pascoe (4) non-starters. Silvy/Zaworski were perhaps slight favourites but their race was over within the first few metres when they got caught in a rut and crossed the pole line coming out of the tapes. Not long after, Dwyer/Katzorke also crossed the white line, and with Silvy and Dwyer both excluded, Menadue and Dolan were left to complete the race alone to go into the final.

The second semi-final starters were Max Howse/Chloe Ackerley (9), Trent Headland/Tilo Schultz (6), Jayden Mayes/Scott Cameron (5) and Jim Irwin/Kate Barnes (3), and it was Mayes, the former Aussie #2 on the comeback trail, who took the win and the remaining place in the final. Trent Headland, was without regular passenger Jaxon Rayner, and with 16-year-old former junior rider Tilo Schultz on the side for the first time he understandable wasn’t riding as aggressively as usual, but, like everyone, they were always in the thick of the action and even won their last heat.

The line-up for the final was Plaisted/Anthony in red, Nate Headland/Hearne blue, Menadue/Dolan white and Mayes/Cameron yellow.

Headland looked to be the biggest danger to Plaisted but while Plaisted jumped straight into the lead at the start, Headland was out of shape and left at the back where he stayed throughout the race. With Headland out of it first Mayes, and then Menadue, gave chase on Plaisted and Menadue almost pinched it on the line. After riding wheel-to-wheel for a couple of laps, Plaisted left a small gap going through the last turn. Menadue was able to draw level and looked to be in a position to win but Plaisted was able to out race him to the line and win by half-a-bike length.

Solos are thin on the ground in Australia these days, and Gillman could only get three nominations for this meeting, which was reduced to two when Harry Sadler had to withdraw on the day of the meeting because of illness. So in his absence the only races were match races between Dayle Wood and Jake Turner. They were first and second in last season’s Gillman Solo Championship and are very close in standard so it was almost like the old days of the Golden Helmet match races, and with five races there had to be a winner and it was Jake Turner who won 3-2.

The Under 16 250cc Solo Championship had a clear-cut favourite, Kobi Canning, and he had no trouble going through the card unbeaten. Ruby Chapman finished second and William Nicol third in the final.

The Flat Track Solo Championship also went to the obvious favourite, with 18-year-old Tyler Battams unbeaten on the night. 63-year-old former long track star David Footner, from Port Pirie, gave him bit of a challenge on the first lap of the final before Battams pulled away to win with Footner second, John Blenkin third, Chloe Ackerley fourth, Dale Knights fifth and Jamie Cornell sixth.

Riley Stout was unbeaten in the heats of the Under 16 125cc Solos, but Australian Champion Blake Schlein took the final ahead of Stout with Ryleigh McGregor third and Nick Salau fourth. Schlein also won the Junior Flat Track class. Full results of all events are on the Gillman website.

The next meeting is the Safe Fire Electrical 500cc Solo South Australian Championship, with the Under 16 250cc SA Championship as one of the support classes, on November 21. Nominations, as always, can be found on the Gillman Speedway website, where they are updated daily. Early nominations are William Cairns (Eng/SA), Luke Harrison (Eng/SA), Mitchell Cluff (NSW), Alexander Adamson (NSW), Mitchell McDiarmid (WA), Dayle Wood (Vic) and Tayla Street (Vic) in the 500s, and Cooper Antone (NSW), Ky Mitchell (Qld), Kobi Canning (SA), Ruby Chapman (SA) and William Nicol (SA) in the 250s.