2023 Australian Solo Speedway Championship
Round Four – North Brisbane (Final)
With Endorphin Media
Wednesday night saw the final round of the 2023 Australian Speedway Championships staged at North Brisbane. The team from Darcy Ward Speedway Promotions had been preparing the track for many days and it looked an absolute picture.
Jason Doyle came into this fourth and final round with a lead of three-points over Jack Holder, and 12-points ahead of Rohan Tungate. Doyle had won the main final at each of the three preceding rounds; Gillman (SA), Albury-Wodonga and Kurri Kurri (NSW), before the championship finale hit Queensland on Wednesday night.
Local star Ryan Douglas was a wild card for the North Brisbane round and set the cat amongst the pigeons during the night, doing a job on Jason Doyle in semi-final.
Overall though it was largely an incident free night of racing. Michael West had a chain break on the start line in heat 18 and was replaced by Jacob Hook as the reserve rider. Heat 18 was led by Josh Pickering in front of Jason Doyle, Doyle made a last-minute lunge for the line but James Pearson held on for the win.
Heat 20 was an exciting race with Cooper Riordan, Jack Holder, Rohan Tungate and local wild card Ryan Douglas the combatants. Off the start Tungate lunged into first place but proceedings were then red-flagged due to movement on the line from Riordan.
Tungate led into T1 and and T2 at the re-start but with Holder cutting back and Douglas going around the outside into the lead to T3. Holder moved up onto Tungate’s rear wheel as they exited T4 for lap two and was then able to slip underneath Tungate in T4, but Douglas was well out in front. On the exit of T2 on the next lap holder pushed up and left only a small gap for Tungate on the wall, this left Douglas way out in front with Holder 2nd, Tungate 3rd and Cooper Riordan in 4th.
As they got back to peel off the track there was a little altercation between Holder and Tungate while they were still on their bikes.Â
Then as they dismounted and still fully charged with adrenalin, Tungate took a swing at Jack Holder.
Chris Holder was quickly on the scene along with Kevin Apps (COC) and Starter Anthony Driscoll.
Things were settled down and proceedings moved on as the riders were escorted to the pits. This wasn’t new ground for the pair as Tungate and Holder had been involved in a similar situation a few years back.
As the event entered the semi-final stage Doyle was on 61 points, Jack Holder on 59, Max Fricke on 50 and Rohan Tungate on 49. Max Fricke had probably been the rider of the night in the lead up to the semis.
The semi-finals delivered some fantastic racing, but under the championship points system semi-finalists earn no points, only a spot in the final. Doyle’s fate was in his own hands as he had stated he would not race in Australia in the future and was obviously aiming to bow out on top. Semi-final 1 saw Douglas, Fricke, Doyle and Cook do battle.
Fricke got a great start but Douglas caught him up by the exit of T3, leaving Doyle in third and Cook to finish fourth. It was the first final Doyle had missed in the series. One can only imagine what might have been if Douglas had of participated in the entire championship.
Jack Holder, Ryan Tungate, Bradley Kurtz and Zane Kelleher contested the second semi. Kelleher had been a stand-out off the gate all night but this time around Holder got a cracking start to lead through T1 and T2 from Tungate, as Kurtz and Kelleher jostled for position.
It all came down to the series final.
Jack Holder, Max Fricke, Ryan Douglas, Rohan Tungate. Douglas had been revelling in the outside start gate all evening but Fricke was quick off the gate in red, with Holder in second and Douglas in third onto the back straight.
Holder came up the inside in T3 and passed Fricke, with Douglas and Tungate in hot pursuit. Douglas then got up into second as the rounded T1 for the second time. Fricke then came back and passed Douglas on the inside through T3.
Holder had a good lead as he led into the final lap, taking time for a sneak peek as he blasted through T4. Positions didn’t change as they rounded towards the chequered flag. Holder had time to raise his hand in a sign of victory as he exited T4.
First to congratulate Holder was his brother Chris, who had previously won five Aussie Titles.
Jason Doyle had some choice words in his podium interview regarding the efforts from Motorcycling Australia in the promotion of speedway, but then recanted those comments 36 hours on social media.
At the final, and throughout the quick-fire series, there was some fantastic racing with some great individual performances.
Congratulations to Jack Holder, our 2023 Australian Solo Speedway Champion.
There was also some great skill displayed by the youngsters on the support card.
2023 Australian Solo Speedway Championship
Round Four Scores – North Brisbane
| Pos | Rider | Points |
| 1 | Jack Holder | 16 |
| 2 | Max Fricke | 17 |
| 3 | Rohan Tungate | 13 |
| 4 | Ryan Douglas (WC) | 12 |
| 5 | Jason Doyle | 11 |
| 6 | Brady Kurtz | 11 |
| 7 | Zach Cook | 8 |
| 8 | Zane Keleher | 8 |
| 9 | Josh Pickering | 8 |
| 10 | Chris Holder | 7 |
| 11 | Justin Sedgmen | 7 |
| 12 | Zaine Kennedy | 5 |
| 13 | James Pearson | 3 |
| 14 | Michael West | 2 |
| 15 | Patrick Hamilton | 2 |
| 16 | Cooper Riordan | 0 |
| 17 | Jacob Hook (R) | 0 |
2023 Australian Solo Speedway Championship Points
(Final)
| Pos | Rider | Total | Rnd1 Gillman | Rnd2 Albury | Rnd3 Kurri Kurri | Rnd4 N. Brisbane |
| 1 | Jack Holder | 63 | 17 | 12 | 18 | 16 |
| 2 | Jason Doyle | 61 | 17 | 16 | 17 | 11 |
| 3 | Max Fricke | 53 | 11 | 17 | 8 | 17 |
| 4 | Rohan Tungate | 51 | 14 | 10 | 14 | 13 |
| 5 | Brady Kurtz | 45 | 8 | 13 | 13 | 11 |
| 6 | Josh Pickering | 39 | 6 | 14 | 11 | 8 |
| 7 | Justin Sedgmen | 38 | 13 | 9 | 9 | 7 |
| 8 | Chris Holder | 37 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 7 |
| 9 | Zach Cook | 28 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| 10 | Zane Keleher | 22 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 8 |
| 11 | James Pearson | 16 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 3 |
| 12 | Zaine Kennedy | 14 | – | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| 13 | Ryan Douglas (WC) | 12 | – | – | – | 12 |
| 14 | Sam Masters | 8 | 8 | – | – | – |
| 15 | Ben Cook | 8 | 8 | – | – | – |
| 16 | Patrick Hamilton | 7 | – | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 17 | Jye Etheridge (WC) | 5 | – | – | 5 | – |
| 18 | Cooper Riordan | 4 | – | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| 19 | Fraser Bowes | 3 | 3 | – | – | – |
| 20 | Brayden McGuinness | 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
| 21 | Michael West | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 22 | Maurice Brown (WC) | 0 | – | 0 | – | – |
| 23 | Jake Turner (R) | 0 | 0 | – | – | – |
| 24 | Liam May (R) | 0 | 0 | – | – | – |
| 25 | Kane Lawrence | 0 | – | – | 0 | – |
| 26 | Harrison Ryan | 0 | – | – | – | 0 |
| 27 | Jacob Hook (R) | 0 | – | – | – | 0 |
