2024 FIM SPEEDWAY QUALIFYING: AUSTRALIA ALLOCATED FIVE SPOTS

Feature photo:  Jaimon Lidsey in action

Australia gets five 2024 FIM Speedway GP qualifying spots.

The battle for a position in the 2025 FIM Speedway Grand Prix (SGP) series for Australia’s top guns starts now with news that Motorcycling Australia (MA) has been allocated five spots for riders to go through the European-based qualifying process in 2024.

The five qualifying spots, awarded by the FIM Track Commission, will be allocated to the following Australian riders:

• Those who finish first to fourth in the 2024 Australian Speedway Championship; and . . .
• The first-placed Australian rider (with an MA licence) in the 2024 FIM Oceania Speedway Championship.

This is the first time that an SGP qualifying position has been allocated via the FIM Oceania Championship, with the five qualifying spots for Australian riders only equalled by four other nations across the speedway globe.

The four qualifying rounds in 2024 will be held on May 20 (Germany and Hungary) and May 25 (Italy and Slovakia) respectively, with one Australian to compete at all rounds except Italy, where two will be in action.

The top four riders from each qualifying round will then progress to the final-frontier SGP Challenge meeting on October 4, where the top three will then be added to the 2025 SGP roster.

“I’m thrilled that five Australian riders will now get the opportunity to go through the Speedway Grand Prix qualification process in 2024, and the extra spot via the Oceania Championship is a real nod to the quality and increasing importance of that event,” said MA CEO Peter Doyle.

“Australia continues to be a talent factory for speedway riders, and I look forward to our emerging talent taking it up to the seasoned veterans in the 2024 Australian championship.”

Jack Holder and Max Fricke went through the pressure-packed qualification process in 2022 to lock in a spot in the 2023 SGP field, and this year Jason Doyle followed suit to ensure the 2017 world champion’s career in speedway’s showpiece series will continue into a 10th year in 2024.

For a fresh batch of riders, the qualification process begins with the 2024 Australian Speedway Championship, which starts in North Brisbane on January 4 before visiting Kurri Kurri (January 7), Albury-Wodonga (January 9), Mildura (January 11) and Gillman (January 13).

The Gillman track in Adelaide will then continue its busy summer by hosting the 2024 FIM Oceania Speedway Championship on January 27.

Australia’s five places in the FIM Speedway Grand Prix qualification rounds will be up for grabs in January as the nation stages its biggest speedway events.

The 2024 Australian Championship will be contested over five rounds from January 4-13, with the top four riders guaranteed places in the Speedway GP qualifiers.

They will be joined by the highest-placed Australian-licensed rider in the FIM Oceania Speedway Championship, which takes place at Adelaide venue Gillman on January 27.

The five-round national championship launches in Queensland at the Darcy Ward-promoted North Brisbane track on January 4, with racing moving to Kurri Kurri in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley on January 7.

Round three takes place at Albury-Wodonga on the New South Wales-Victoria border on January 9, before Victorian venue Mildura stages the penultimate event on January 11. The action concludes at Gillman on January 13.

The five riders who book places in the Speedway GP qualifiers will head to one of four rounds, which take place at German track Abensberg and Hungarian circuit Debrecen on May 20, with two more at Italian venue Lonigo and Slovak circuit Zarnovica on May 25.

The top four riders in these meetings progress to the FIM GP Challenge at Czech track Pardubice on Friday, October 4, where the top three finishers become the final guaranteed qualifiers for the 2025 Speedway GP series.

Motorcycling Australia CEO Peter Doyle believes making a Speedway GP qualification spot available to the winner of the relatively new FIM Oceania event only raises the stakes.

He said: “I’m thrilled that five Australian riders will now get the opportunity to go through the Speedway Grand Prix qualification process in 2024, and the extra spot via the Oceania Championship is a real nod to the quality and increasing importance of that event.

“Australia continues to be a talent factory for speedway riders, and I look forward to our emerging talent taking it up to the seasoned veterans in the 2024 Australian Championship.”