SPEEDWAY GP TRIO GOES FOR 2025 AUSSIE GOLD

Three Speedway GP riders will battle it out for Australian Championship glory after the line-up for the four-round series in January was revealed.

Three-time Aussie champion Max Fricke joins 2023 winner Jack Holder and 2016 champion Brady Kurtz in the world’s first major speedway action of 2025, which sees two-time winner Rohan Tungate defend the trophy he lifted in January 2024.

Former Speedway GP world champion Chris Holder bids for his sixth national championship, with Aussie internationals Jaimon Lidsey and Ryan Douglas chasing their first, alongside siblings Ben and Zach Cook and Josh Pickering.

FIM Speedway of Nations - SON2 bronze medallists Keynan Rew and James Pearson go for senior Aussie gold, alongside Tate Zischke, who has recovered from the fractured vertebra and ribs and a posterior wound suffered in Manchester on July 1, which wrecked his 2024 season.

The line up is completed by two-time championship runner-up Justin Sedgmen, former SGP3 rider Mitchell McDiarmid and Mitchell Cluff. The reserves list, should any riders withdraw, includes former SON2 stars Fraser Bowes and Michael West, plus Harrison Ryan, Jack Morrison and Dayle Wood.

The competition gets underway at Adelaide venue Gillman on January 3 – home of the FIM SGP Academy – Down Under from January 22-24. 

The Aussie series then moves to Victorian venue Mildura on January 5, with round three taking place at Albury-Wodonga on the Victorian-New South Wales border on January 8.

Former Speedway GP winner Darcy Ward promotes the final round at Queensland track North Brisbane on January 11. This comes just 24 hours before the Darcy Ward Invitational also takes place there on January 12, featuring Speedway GP riders and former world champions.

The top two riders in the Australian Championship will earn places in the 2025 Speedway GP qualification rounds, along with the winner of the FIM Oceania Championship, which will be hosted at Gillman on January 25.

The trio will battle it to reach the FIM SGP Challenge at Holsted on August 9, with the top four riders at the Danish event taking their places in the 2026 Speedway GP series.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIP LINE-UP (in alphabetical order): Ben Cook, Zach Cook, Mitchell Cluff, Ryan Douglas, Max Fricke, Chris Holder, Jack Holder, Brady Kurtz, Jaimon Lidsey, Mitchell McDiarmid, James Pearson, Josh Pickering, Keynan Rew, Justin Sedgmen, Rohan Tungate, Tate Zischke. RESERVES: 1. Fraser Bowes, 2. Michael West, 3. Harrison Ryan, 4. Jack Morrison, 5. Dayle Wood.