Aussie Titles

NEWS Wednesday 2nd January 2019, 11:25am

by Toby Lerone

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The start of a new year brings the start of the Australian Solo Championship race and the qualifier to find the eight to join the seeded riders in the five round Championship took place at Gillman Speedway in Adelaide on Wednesday.

We had a dual interest in the qualifier with both Josh Pickering and Justin Sedgmen taking part. For Sedgy it was a straightforward affair and even a tape touch in his last race didn't stop him finishing third overall on 11 points for easy qualification.

For Josh it was a completely different story and it was a real battle for him to get into contention after scoring just one point in his first two rides. However, he picked up seven points from his next three rides and tied with Ben Cook. It then came down to countback and with both riders having an equal record of one win, two seconds, a third and a last it then came down to heat 2 when the two riders met. Ben finished second in that race and Josh was last and that gave Ben the Championship place.

So joining the seeded riders - Max Fricke, Chris Holder, Jack Holder, Zane Keleher, Brady Kurtz, Jaimon Lidsey, Sam Masters and Rohan Tungate - are Jordan Stewart, Ryan Douglas, Justin Sedgmen, Kye Thomsen, Todd Kurtz, Nick Morris, Zach Cook and Ben Cook.

The Championship gets underway at Gillman on Thursday and then to Mildura on Saturday followed by Undera next Monday, Albury next Wednesday before concluding at Kurri Kurri on 12th January.

Our Australian correspondent, Howard Williams will be bringing us reports from each round.