RIPLEY teenager Ryan Silcock has upstaged his more established rivals to claim the Australian Modlite Title at Grafton Speedway.

Since debuting in the 1100cc powered Modlites in mid-2023, Silcock displayed immediate talent by winning the South Australian title.

 The 17-year-old added the Australian title trophy to his collection after a dominant display throughout the two-day event over Easter.

“This means a lot,” Silcock said.

“I started out in dirt karts and won 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.”

Ryan said he trusted the way his dad Darren set up the car.

“We’ve been trying a lot of stuff and it certainly paid off. It’s sensational,” Ryan said.

Ryan (pictured) was in outstanding form throughout the two-night Australian title event, where he topped the point standings on night one and carried that form through to the second and final night.

He qualified on pole position for the Australian title-deciding feature race and dominated the entire 25-lap journey.

Despite coming out on top, Silcock was lucky to finish.

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.

He greeted the chequered flag on pretty much three wheels, after his inside front wheel had collapsed.

One of the event favourites - current NSW, Queensland and Victorian champion  Corey Stein - had to settle for second.

Former Australian titleholder Terry Leerentveld was third.