2023 Australian Solo Speedway Championship
Round Two – Albury Wodonga
Albury Wodonga Motorcycle Club hosted the second round of the 2023 Australian Speedway Championship overnight at their Diamond Park Speedway venue that almost straddles the NSW and Victorian borders near the banks of an engorged Murray River.
The contents of the Murray and surrounds had seen the venue a metre deep in floodwaters until only a few weeks ago.
The originally scheduled round two at Mildura had been cancelled due to the Olympic Park venue’s current status as an island! Between the Albury Wodonga venue and Mildura the Murray River meanders its way another 1238 kilometres and picks up many tributaries along the way, including the major intersection with the Darling, which left the Mildura Motorcycle Club with no other choice than to cancel their round of the championship.
Things had also been far from plain sailing for the Albury Wodonga Motorcycle Club whose involvement in the series was also in great doubt until only a few weeks ago when waters tarted receding and a huge clean up effort was undertaken in order to hold their first round of the championship after a COVID interrupted three year break.
While the track itself and the spectator mounds had been made ready, the club kitchen and some other facilities were still waiting for the all clear from health authorities post clean up thus organisers were forced to use mobile catering services and just essentially ‘make do’ and get on on with it.
South Australia had hosted the opening round of the 2023 Australian Speedway Senior Solo Championship at Gillman on Tuesday night.
2017 World Champion Jason Doyle and current World Teams Champ Jack Holder both claimed 17 points in what was a bruising opening encounter for some to the 2023 domestic season.
Former Under-21 World champ and three-time Aussie champ Max Fricke was third in the final in South Australia but only scored 11 points for the round after struggling in the early heats, those problems put him behind well credentialled long-time international star Justin Sedgmen who bagged 13 points at Gillman to go in to this Albury-Wodonga round fourth on points.
Bettering them both on the points tally in South Australia though was 2018 Aussie Champion Rohan Tungate. The 32-year-old finished ahead of five-time Aussie Champion and 2012 World Speedway champ Chris Holder, who like Fricke left South Australia with a tally of 11 points, and entered this second round third on the points table.
Former Under-21 World Champ Jaimon Lidsey didn’t even make round one after breaking his wrist last month and was replaced at round one by Brayden McGuinness, who in turn withdrawn from this round to be replaced by Justin Sedgmen.
Ben Cook had scored eight points in South Australia but his place on the tapes for this round was taken up by Cooper Riordan.
Motorcycling Australia’s new speedway specific air-fence was deployed for the first time at the Albury-Wodonga round and will be used for the remainder of the championship. This is of the same specification as used in Speedway GP.
Why the colouring? Well it turns out this air-fence order was originally placed by Ukraine, but the Ukrainians currently they have their hands full with more pressing matters…
Likewise 2017 champ Sam Masters had claimed eight-points at Gillman before going down hard and damaging his shoulder. The injuries bad enough to force him out of the series, his replacement for this round Patrick Hamilton.
Diamond Park turned on a bright and sunny afternoon for the second round and while Max Fricke starred in his heat races, winning all but one, Jason Doyle stole his thunder in the final to finish on the top step of the rostrum and take the round win, despite bagging 16 points for the round overall to Fricke’s 17.
Josh Pickering took 14 points and the final step on the rostrum ahead of Brady Kurtz. The latter of that pair had some great heat races and was battling through the pain of broken ribs to earn his 13 points for the round ahead of Jack Holder on 12.
Rohan Tungate and Chris Holder both scored ten points and finished sixth and seventh for the round ahead of Justin Sedgmen and Zach Cook while James Pearson rounded out the top ten for the night.
At the halfway point of the four round series Jason Doyle leads the championship on 33-points to Jack Holder’s 29 and Max Fricke’s 28.
It is still pretty wide open with two rounds to go though with Rohan Tungate on 24-points and Justin Sedgmen on 22 while Brady Kurtz and Chris Holder have 21 apiece. Josh Pickering currently ranks eighth on the championship table with 20-points.
It was a very succesful night with Diamond Park full to capacity. A great reward for all the hard work put in by club members to ready it for competition after the whole venue was under a metre of floodwater only a few weeks earlier.
Australia’s best speedway riders are now wending their way north for round three at Kurri Kurri, which happens to be home turf for Tungate. Kurri Kurri hosts round three on Monday, January 9, before the finale is staged at North Brisbane only two days later on January 11.
2023 Australian Solo Speedway Championship Round Two Scores
| Pos | N° | Rider | Points |
| 1 | 8 | Jason Doyle | 16 |
| 2 | 2 | Max Fricke | 17 |
| 3 | 5 | Josh Pickering | 14 |
| 4 | 7 | Brady Kurtz | 13 |
| 5 | 14 | Jack Holder | 12 |
| 6 | 12 | Rohan Tungate | 10 |
| 7 | 4 | Chris Holder | 10 |
| 8 | 16 | Justin Sedgmen | 9 |
| 9 | 13 | Zach Cook | 7 |
| 10 | 11 | James Pearson | 6 |
| 11 | 3 | Zane Keleher | 5 |
| 12 | 9 | Zaine Kennedy | 4 |
| 13 | 10 | Patrick Hamilton | 3 |
| 14 | 6 | Cooper Riordan | 3 |
| 15 | 1 | Maurice Brown (WC) | 0 |
| 16 | 15 | Michael West | 0 |
2023 Australian Solo Speedway Championship Points
| Pos | Rider | Points | Gillman | Albury |
| 1 | Jason Doyle | 33 | 17 | 16 |
| 2 | Jack Holder | 29 | 17 | 12 |
| 3 | Max Fricke | 28 | 11 | 17 |
| 4 | Rohan Tungate | 24 | 14 | 10 |
| 5 | Justin Sedgmen | 22 | 13 | 9 |
| 6 | Brady Kurtz | 21 | 8 | 13 |
| 7 | Chris Holder | 21 | 11 | 10 |
| 8 | Josh Pickering | 20 | 6 | 14 |
| 9 | Zach Cook | 12 | 5 | 7 |
| 10 | James Pearson | 9 | 3 | 6 |
| 11 | Sam Masters | 8 | 8 | |
| 12 | Ben Cook | 8 | 8 | |
| 13 | Zane Keleher | 8 | 3 | 5 |
| 14 | Zaine Kennedy | 4 | 4 | |
| 15 | Patrick Hamilton | 3 | 3 | |
| 16 | Fraser Bowes | 3 | 3 | |
| 17 | Cooper Riordan | 3 | 3 | |
| 18 | Brayden McGuinness | 2 | 2 | |
| 19 | Maurice Brown (WC) | 0 | 0 | |
| 20 | Michael West | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | Jake Turner (R) | 0 | 0 | |
| 22 | Liam May (R) | 0 | 0 |
