Tungate is the Aussie Champion

NEWS Saturday 13th January 2024, 12:19pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Rohan Tungate is the new Australian Champion following the completion of the five-round series at Gillman today. Max Fricke started the meeting as hot favourite with a 5-point advantage but Max had a very disappointing meeting today.

He started with an exclusion then a couple of thirds, and though he recovered to win his last two heats he could do no better than fourth place in the semi-final. Tungate was consistent throughout the series and deserved his title.

He will be racing for Oxford in the 2024 Premiership in the UK. The winner of the Gillman round was Brady Kurtz, and the overall 1-2-3 for the series was Tungate first, Fricke second and Jack Holder third after a run-off with Jaimon Lidsey.

Having made the final in the first round, our own Josh Pickering will be disappointed not to have made any more semi-finals, even allowing for the high standard in the field. He had no luck at all with his gates draw throughout, and did manage some overtakes, but he will have to improve his gating before he can consistently challenge the big names.

Today he seemed set fair for a semi with six from his first three rides, but he broke the tapes in his fourth ride and again fell just short. His 41-point total placed him 8th in the championship.

Justin Sedgmen had one very good wild card appearance, while our asset Sam Masters had a fairly frustrating series on what seemed slowish machinery.