SOLO EVENTS THRILL QUEENSLAND CROWD

A huge crowd of witnessed what was undoubtedly some of the finest Solo racing in the country at Bowen Showground on Saturday night, December 3.

The event was the Queensland Open Championship and 14 of the best Aussie riders, including several who have just returned from racing overseas in the UK and European Leagues, competed.

The Championship was run over five rounds of four heats with the top three riders progressing directly into the four-lap Final. The fourth rider in the state title race was the winner of the B-Final.

The 20 heats were hectic as riders vied for a spot in the Final. British League rider, Ryan Douglas went through the heats undefeated while local, Kozza Smith, and Brisbane’s Declan Kennedy dropped only three points over the 5 rounds. All three went straight into the Final.

Rockhampton’s Zane Keleher, Brisbane’s Jacob Hook and Zaine Kennedy and newly-crowned State Under-21 Champion, Tate Zischke faced the tapes in the B-Final and put on a mighty show with Kennedy just winning ahead of Zischke to join his brother in the Final.

As the tapes flew in the Final, the racing was breathtaking with Zane Kennedy and Douglas wheel to wheel, swapping the lead several times. As they raced to the chequered flag, Douglas was centimetres ahead when Zaine made one last desperate attempt to slip under him with the unfortunate result of contacting Douglas’s front wheel and taking him out just a couple of metres from the finish line. Declan Kennedy crossed the line behind Zaine followed by Smith. Douglas

took quite a while to get on his feet, somewhat sore and sorry but thankfully okay.

The Steward deemed Zaine Kennedy to be at fault and excluded him from the placings, awarding the win to Douglas with Declan Kennedy second and Smith, third.

Earlier in the day, the State Under-21 Solo Title was run after being postponed from the Friday night following heavy rain.

Seven riders contested the event. Flynn Nicol was on hand to defend his title against international, Jacob Hook and recently-crowned NSW U-21 Champion and South Australian number two, Tate Zischke. Broc Hall, Cordell Rogerson, Bradley Page and Jacob Samwell were the other riders, all capable of causing an upset.

Nicol was unlucky to blow his motor in his last heat, robbing him of important points and excluding him from the Championship Final. Zischke went through his five heats dropping only one point to Hook in his fourth heat. The Final line-up was Hook, Hall, Rogerson and Zischke. However, there was no stopping Zischke as he added the Queensland Title to his name. Rogerson was second and Hall, third. Hook failed to finish but finished in fourth place overall.

Zischke will head to Adelaide next weekend to compete in the 2022 Australian Solo Championship.