JYE SIGNS FOR MONARCHS

NEWS Tuesday 22nd December 2015, 8:00am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The sixth signing for the 2016 Border Roofing Monarchs will be 20 year old Australian rider Jye Etheridge, coming over for his first crack at British Speedway. He’s a close friend of Sam Masters.

Jye did spend some time in the UK last year having a look at some of the tracks, and he has been encouraged to come over by some of the established Australian big names. He will start the season on an assessed 5.00 average.

He says “I decided I could have a chance of having a crack at the UK after last year’s Boxing night meeting when I beat Doyley, Sam, Josh Grajczonek and all the big names.

“I’ve been beating Proctor, Campton and Taylor Poole this year and they’ve said 'try and push for a ride, you are not going to get any quicker staying here and riding against the slower guys'.

“I grew up with Sam, we’ve known each other for many many years and we hang out together.

“I came over during the year and spent a bit of time with Sam. I was up staying with Sam but I didn’t see a meeting there, I was down in Somerset when Edinburgh had a meeting on.

“I didn’t ride at all, the night I was meant to ride at Somerset Nick Morris had a crash with Ryan Fisher, so there was a delay and I couldn’t get a ride.

“I know the UK tracks are small but that doesn’t worry me, I’ve got a little 150 metre track at home I can ride my bike around. I go not too bad on the small tracks. I scored 14 this year at Undera which is a pretty tiny track.

“Sam’s told me Armadale is a pretty good track to have as a home track. Max Fricke told me the same thing.

“I started racing when I was 16, jumped straight on a 500 so it was right in at the deep end. This year is my fourth season of racing, and my home track is Kurri-Kurri which is a pretty good track.

“I’m not doing the Aussie series because I want to save money for coming over. I’m not doing the Under-21s either, it’s a 24 hour drive which will be expensive for petrol and accommodation, and the point money is poor.

“I’ve got a booking for the Boxing Night Invitational, the Jason Crump meeting where you’ve got Sam, Rohan, Sedgmen, Fricke, Richie Worrall, Ryan Douglas and a lot of good names.

“I think there’s one more invitational there at the end of January, and that will be it, I’ll just do a lot of practising before I come over.

“I’ll be staying with Sam and my brother, who works for Triumph, near Leicester.

“I’ve seen plenty of videos of Armadale it looks pretty interesting and fun to ride. “I’m bringing over a few engines that I’ve got, I just have to get some rolling chassis when I get over there.

“I had talks with a few clubs but they said they couldn’t really take a chance, and then just on Sunday morning I got a call from another saying they had a contract ready. So that’s bad luck for them, but anyway Sam says Edinburgh is the best club in the Premier League and he wishes he’d spent his first few years there.

“I’ve had messages from some of the Edinburgh supporters already, even though I hadn’t said anything to anyone!

“I’m coming on an Ancestry Visa because my Grandmother was born in Scotland, she lived there for 5 years. I expect to be over at the end of February though I haven’t really sorted anything yet.”