JACK HOLDER’S VICTORY IS NATIONAL TITLE FORM GUIDE

Feature photo by: Judy Mackay

Jack Holder may well have struck the first psychological blow against his rivals for this Friday night’s Australian Championship CBS Bins opening round at Gillman Speedway with an unbeaten run at the same track on Saturday night (28 Dec) in the privately promoted International Speedway Masters.

The event was run by David Tapp Power Productions Pty Ltd, which leased the venue from the Speedway Riders Association of SA,  and was a nod to the famous international series Tapp successfully ran from1995 to 2001 and which was basically a forerunner to the Speedway Grand Prix.

The meeting attracted a large crowd, which appeared to be around the 1500 mark, many who came for a rare chance to see some foreign riders, such as Jan Kvech and Luke Becker, and others to see the Australian stars as a taster for this week’s Championship round, and all would have been excited by what they saw.

The meeting format was that being used by the SGP in 2025 with the final consisting of the top two point scorers and the winners of two last chance semi-finals, and there was no doubt about the top two scorers as Jack Holder and Jaimon Lidsey dominated the scorecard.

As mentioned Holder went through the card unbeaten, and perhaps more importantly, he was not winning the starts but was still able to pass his opposition riders to finish with his 15 point maximum.

Lidsey started with a third place behind Holder and Kvech, but thereafter won his other four rides to finish with 13 points, three ahead of the next best – Luke Becker, Jan Kvech, Chris Holder and Max Fricke on 10. They all had their moments of brilliance but could not string together race wins, with only Becker and Cvech (2 each) able to win more than one race.

Joining them in the semi-finals were Sam Masters 9, Jonas Jeppeson 8, Tom Brennan 7 and local star Fraser Bowes 6, who also all scored one race win, and it was Bowes’ win over Jeppersen and Kvech in heat six which got him into the semi-final on countback over Justin Sedgmen and Luke Killeen.

In total there were 11 heat winners, showing the closeness of the racing, and the other rider to score a race win was the 16-year-old rising star Mitchell McDiarmid who beat Grand Prix rider Max Fricke in heat 18. Although he was only riding junior speedway at the start of the year, such has been his rapid rise in senior speedway his win over Fricke, thrilling as it was, was not a total shock. In his previous race, just two heats earlier, he was only a couple of bikes lengths behind Kvech and Chris Holder as they had one of the best dices of the night.

The first semi-final featured Luke Becker, Chris Holder, Sam Masters and Tom Brennan. Becker, from red, and Brennan may have been slight favourites but it was vintage Chris Holder as he led all way while Brennan, Masters and Becker had a good race for the minor placings. Becker came from last to get into second on the last lap but was repassed by Brennan for a result of Holder, Brennan, Becker, Masters.

The second semi-final was equally as thrilling, especially with local rider Fraser Bowes making an early pass on Max Fricke to be right in the mix, but ultimately it was Jan Kvech by about half-a-bike length from Fricke, who made up a lot of ground on the last lap but left his run too late, with Jonas Jepperson beating Bowes in another close finish for third.

For the final Jack Holder took red, Lidsey blue, Chris Holder white, leaving Kvech with yellow and before the race started it was mind-games between Jack and Jaimon, two of the Aussie Championship favourites. They were elbow-to-elbow at the tapes and neither was willing to move. When they eventually were forced to move apart, Chris took advantage of their games to race to the lead and was looking every bit a winner until he went wide on the second lap and had to slow which allowed Jack to take the lead. Chris quickly regained his composure to hold second place and the two brothers then had a thrilling race for victory, and the Leigh Adams Medal, and it was Jack who prevailed to complete his unbeaten night, with Chris second, Kvech a very close third and Lidsey fourth.

International Speedway Masters Leigh Adams Medal

Heat points: Jack Holder (NSW) 15 (3-3-3-3-3), Jaimon Lidsey (Vic) 13 (1-3-3-3-3), Luke Becker (USA) 10 (2-3-3-1-1), Jan Kvech (Czech) 10 (2-1-1-3-3), Chris Holder (NSW) 10 (3-2-1-2-2), Max Fricke (Vic) 10 (3-1-2-2-2), Sam Masters (NSW) 9 (3-0-2-2-2), Jonas Jeppesen (Den) 8 (1-2-2-3-0), Tom Brennan (Eng) 7 (R-2-3-2-0), Fraser Bowes (SA) 6 (1-3-2-0-0), Justin Sedgmen (Vic) 6 (2-1-1-0-2), Luke Killeen (WA) 6 (2-2-F-1-1), Mitchell McDiarmid (WA) 5 (0-0-1-1-3), Michael West (Vic) 3 (FX-1-0-1-1), Jack Morrison (Vic) 2 (1-0-0-0-1), Sam Hagon (Eng) 0 (0-0-0-0-0)

Semi-Final 1: C. Holder (56.59), Brennan, Becker, Masters

Semi-Final 2: Kvech (57.35), Fricke, Jeppersen, Bowes

Final: J. Holder (57.28), C. Holder, Kvech, Lidsey