FRICKE SEEKING SPEEDWAY GP CONSISTENCY

Triple Aussie champion Max Fricke insists he has what it takes to mix it at the sharp end of the Speedway GP standings, but knows he needs to be “a lot more consistent” in 2023.

The Victorian racer powered to victory at the Orlen FIM Speedway GP of Poland – Warsaw last May – the second SGP win of his career after he triumphed at round seven in Torun in 2020.

But Fricke did not reach the semi-finals in any of the other eight rounds he raced last year, before a crash at the Polish First Division play-off final decider in Zielona Gora on September 24 ended his season before the Torun finale.

Having raced to eighth place in the 2021 standings, Fricke has proved he can deliver against the best riders in the world. But he admits he needs to pile up big points on a more consistent basis.

He said: “We have another massively strong line-up this year in the Grand Prix, but I have shown on multiple occasions that I have the speed to do it.

“We need to find a little more consistency with that, but I don’t see why I can’t be up there at the pointy end come the end of the season.

“It’s a lot of work and you need a few things to go your way. But we are doing all we can to be in that position to give us the best possible result. We need to be a lot more consistent than we were in the past. I think it comes down to finding things I am happy with earlier on in the meetings to score some points and get to those semis and finals.”

Fricke raced to his third straight Australian Championship in the pandemic-delayed 2022 competition last December but was pipped to top spot in the 2023 series by Jack Holder in January.

The Leicester rider admits he wasn’t completely ready to race just three months on from a crash that left him with a broken sternum, bruised lungs, a sprained shoulder, a cracked shoulder blade and concussion. But he was glad to take the chance to get back in the swing of things on the bike.

He said: “I was obviously not 100 percent fit then because we were just coming off our holiday time. I was also coming off an injury and was just trying to get back in the groove of things and get a bit of seat time.

“Just being back on the bike was nice. Last time I rode before that, it didn’t end so well, so getting some confidence back and remembering how we do it before we started this year was good!

“Everything felt good. My fitness was good, and I have been working hard on my strength over the winter to get back to full fitness and be ready for the new season.”

Fricke is now back racing in Europe and is happy with how his Speedway GP preparations are progressing ahead of the series-opening Tehnix FIM Speedway GP of Croatia on April 29.

“It’s coming along nicely,” he said. “The start of the season has been a little bit colder than we would have all expected, so we haven’t had as much track time just yet. But I am sure we will be putting in a lot of work over the next couple of weeks.

“There have been a few changes behind the scenes and there are some things I am trying to work on and improve. We still have a lot of testing to do before the first Grand Prix round.

“Over the next few weeks, we have plenty of work to do and hopefully we will be well and truly prepared for round one.”