SPEEDWAY: Fricke 'Three-Peat' his way to another Aussie 21-title

  

Max Fricke made it three successive Australian under-21 titles in a row at Kurri Kurri Speedway in NSW this past Saturday evening, as the Victoria rider was made to work hard for his victory yet again, in what was an exciting meeting overall.  It saw Fricke beating the NSW (New South Wales) duo of Brady Kurtz and Jack Holder the NSW under-21 champion in the final, to see the former Edinburgh Monarch notch up his third crown in a row.   

In the qualifying races it saw the current holder Max Fricke taking the meetings opening race ahead of Jye Etheridge. Jack Holder took a race win in his first outing after a rerun, while Brady Kurtz had to fend off from an impressive display by Josh Pickering to see him win in heat 4. Pickering had only just completed his first speedway season in his career and did well on his debut in the Australian Under-21 final scoring 11 points.  The following race saw Jye Etheridge and Pickering have a great battle, to which was close to a being a dead heat but Etheridge was adjudged to have just won on the line.

Heat 7 saw Jake Allen take the spoils ahead of Cooper Riordan and Jack Holder, as  Allen made up for a third place in his opening ride.  Max Fricke won his second ride comfortably, while Tyler King, Jordan Stewart and Dale Borlase all had a good battle for the minor places. Heat 9 saw a nasty incident involving Jye Etheridge, to which he took a tumble on the third bend and saw him withdrawn from the meeting suffering with a heavy concussion from the fall.

Heat 12 saw another brilliant race, this time involving Fricke and Holder to which saw Holder leading the champion round for over 3 laps of the race, before Fricke got by Holder to take the race win. Holder then took the next heat in the fourth round of races, as he beat fellow New South Wales racer in Brady Kurtz for the win.

Josh Pickering then saw him score his first race win of the night in heat 14, with a couple races later seeing Jake Allen beat Max Fricke for the first time in the meeting, to see the Brisbane native score his third race in a row.  Heat 17 saw Allen make it 4 wins out of 5 in the next round of races as he secured a bye through to the A Final, while Pickering won his race to take his place along with Jack Holder in the B Final.  Brady Kurtz got the better of Fricke in the final race of the 20 qualifying heats, as he joined Fricke and Allen as the top 3 riders who automatically go through to the A Final.

The B final saw Jack Holder, Josh Pickering, Cooper Riordan and Tyler King contesting a place in the grand final and saw Holder take the race win and see him in the line up against the other big guns in the climax to the championship.  The final as you would expect was one of nervousness and a tense atmosphere, with neither rider giving an inch to the other three in the race and so saw them having to re run the A Final three times before crowning the 2015 champion.

At the first time of asking it saw Jack Holder hitting the deck on the first bend and saw all four back for a re run with first bend bunching called, in the second attempt it saw Jake Allen taking Max Fricke to the fence on the 2^nd bend and had both riders falling off and led to the referee deeming Allen as the cause of the stoppage, which had him running to the starting line and discuss with the referee the exclusion.  On the third attempt of trying to run the A Final, it saw a three way battle to see would be the Australian under-21 champion for 2015.

As the tapes flew up, it saw all three racers battling it out with the proverbial blanket being able to be cover the combatants and saw Max Fricke just edge out Jack Holder in a thrilling finale to meeting and had the youngster from Victoria once again retain his under-21 crown, for a third successive year in a row. The victory sees the recently signed Belle Vue Aces man claim his third title and moves him to within one of the former four-time Australian under-21 champion and also an ex World champion in Poole Pirates rider Chris Holder.

Chris Holder who is the older brother of Jack who rode in the meeting, saw the Grand Prix star presenting the trophy to Fricke and said afterwards “I`m a little nervous that my record might be equalled or beaten” as the Victoria rider still has two years to be able to compete in the competition before he is ineligible and would be a good bet to make it four next year, but the standard of young Australian riders is getting better

Fricke was quoted afterwards saying “It hasn't got any easier to win (the title) everyone is getting better each year”. “After the fall I jumped on my spare bike and thankfully it worked out well.”

Meanwhile Josh Pickering, who was one of the standout riders in the meeting, said of his debut "People tell me I should be pleased with my first season, but I'm competitive. Every time I get on a bike in a race I want to win and I was disappointed I didn't make the A-final," 

1. Jye Etheridge...........2,3,F Withdrawn = 5

2. Jack Fallon.............1,1,1,2,2 = 7

3. Arthur Sissis...........0,0,X,1,0 = 1

4. Max Fricke.............3,3,3,2,2 = 13 

5. Zaine Kennedy...........1,1,0,3,1 = 6

6. Robert Medson..........2,2,2,1,1 = 8

7. Jack Holder............3,1,2,3,3 = 12 Second 

8. Dale Borlase...........0,0,2,1,2 = 5

9. Tyson Snow.............2,0,1,0,1 = 4

10 Jake Mitchell..........0,0,0,0,1 = 1

11 Cooper Riordan.........3,2,3,0,0 = 8

12 Tyler King.............1,2,2,1,2 = 8

13 Josh Pickering.........2,2,1,3,3 = 11

14 Brady Kurtz............3,3,3,2,3 = 14 Third 

15 Jake Allen.............1,3,3,3,3 = 13 Fourth

16 Jordan Stewart.........0,1,1,2,0 = 4

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Res Karl Lawler.......... 0,0

Res Matthew Flay..........0