Over the 12th and 13th of January, South Australia witnessed the crowning of the next generation speedway stars and the current cream of the crop Australian Champions with the running of the 2024 South Australian Under 16 125cc Solo Championships at Sidewinders U16 Speedway Club and the 2024 Australian 500cc Solo Championships at Gillman the following night.
Friday kicked off with top-tier racing talents, including Mildura’s Blake Schlein and our very own world number 4, Kobi Canning, all set to light up the track. It was sure to be a cracking start to initiate the two days of action.
After a night of exceptionally tight racing, a massive congratulations go out to Cooper Antone, who has now etched his name as the South Australian Under 16 125cc state champion. He was closely followed by Kobi Canning in second place, Blake Schlein in third, and Hayden Pascoe rounding out the podium for the night.
Many of these young speedway talents would return the following night as support classes for the fifth and final round of the 2024 Australian 500cc Solo Championships.
Coming in with a 5-point advantage over Rohan Tungate, Max Frick was seen as the championship favourite; however, it wasn’t meant to be when Tungate found the edge, gaining the upper hand to claim the overall 2024 Australian Championship after securing the Round 5 second-place finish behind NSW’s Brady Kurtz, who took the round win.
Catch up on a full breakdown of Saturday night’s Round 5 Championship action – HERE.
2024 Australian 500cc Solo Championships Results (including support categories) – HERE.
All the action across both nights was captured perfectly by Judy Mackay, Terry Scriven Photography, Paris Charles, and Derick Thomas Photography. Find all the photos below –
| Pos | Name | Points |
| 1st | Cooper Antone | 14 |
| 2nd | Kobi Canning | 15 |
| 3rd | Blake Schlein | 12 |
| 4th | Hayden Pascoe | 13 |
| 5th | Ryleigh McGregor | 11 |
| 6th | Riley Stout | 9 |
| 7th | Connor Machin | 9 |
| 8th | Hayden Matthews | 8 |
| 9th | Blake Hocking | 6 |
| 10th | Ruby Chapman | 5 |
| 11th | Hayden Kuchel | 4 |
| 12th | William Nicol | 4 |
| 13th | Owen Chapman | 2 |
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Final: Kurtz (W 55.364), Tungate (R 56.742, Lidsey (B 56.892), J. Holder (Y 57.287)
Run Off J. Holder (B), Lidsey (R) [run-off for overall third in the series]
Round 5, Australian 500cc Solo Championships Points Results:
| Pos | Name | Points |
| 1st | Brady Kurtz | 17 |
| 2nd | Rohan Tungate | 16 |
| 3rd | Jaimon Lidsey | 13 |
| 4th | Jack Holder | 13 |
| 5th | Chris Holder | 11 |
| 6th | Ben Cook | 10 |
| 7th | Max Fricke | 8 |
| 8th | Sam Masters | 7 |
| 9th | Josh Pickering | 7 |
| 10th | Michael West | 7 |
| 11th | Keynan Rew | 5 |
| 12th | Ryan Douglas | 4 |
| 13th | Zach Cook | 4 |
| 14th | Fraser Bowes | 3 |
| 15th | James Pearson | 3 |
| 16th | Jake Turner | 1 |
2024 Australian 500cc Solo Championship Overall Points Results:
| Pos | Name | Points |
| 1st | Rohan Tungate | 70 |
| 2nd | Max Fricke | 67 |
| 3rd | Jack Holder | 61 |
| 4th | Jaimon Lidsey | 61 |
| 5th | Brady Kurtz | 57 |
| 6th | Ben Cook | 42 |
| 7th | Chris Holder | 42 |
| 8th | Josh Pickering | 41 |
| 9th | Sam Masters | 41 |
| 10th | Ryan Douglas | 40 |
| 11th | Zach Cook | 28 |
| 12th | Keynan Rew | 22 |
| 13th | James Pearson | 18 |
| 14th | Michael West | 14 |
| 15th | Fraser Bowes | 11 |
| 16th | Justin Sedgmen | 9 |
| 17th | Tate Zischke | 5 |
| 18th | Jia Ethridge | 4 |
| 19th | Jack Morrison | 3 |
| 20th | Jake Turner | 1 |
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