While elite races attract the crowds, junior meetings hold the key to discovering the sport’s future champions
Have you ever heard about an upcoming junior race meeting – be it speedway, dirt track or long track – and decided not to attend because “it was only juniors”?
I have watched, and been announcer at, plenty of junior meetings over the past two decades and I believe that fans who avoid junior meetings are missing out on two counts.
While everyone loves watching those who are racing at the elite level and riding the fastest machines, junior competition has much to offer. Sure, the races are slower because they feature smaller-capacity machines but the various age brackets of junior classes inevitably provide close competition that should satisfy any onlookers.
More than that, though, is the important question: Who are these riders? And where will they be in say five, 10 or even 20 years?
Pure potential
Like any race meeting, previous successes are a good form guide as to what might happen at an upcoming meeting – but how often do we speculate where a 10-, 12- or 15-year-old we are watching might progress to in the sport? Of course, success at junior level is no guarantee of stardom when a rider enters the senior ranks. Some riders drift away for a variety of reasons – financial concerns, other sporting interests, simply being happy to still be involved without any aspirations for shooting for the stars, and in some unfortunate circumstances there are off-track issues that arise.
Conversely, there are many examples of riders who go on to be successful on the world stage who were simply not outstanding in their junior days – their own physical development and some lucky breaks via sponsorship opportunities often are contributing factors to the delayed yet exponential development and success.
One thing sometimes overlooked is what happens when a rider steps up to race in an older age bracket – after 7 to Under 9s on 65cc machines, for example, a rider goes into the 9 to Under 13s, so they find themselves up against opposition who could be three or four years older, and stronger.
Less success is not necessarily a sign of form decline, but it may take a year or so for the riders to get back near the level of accomplishment they enjoyed in the younger age bracket.
Results are the most distinctive triggers as to why we might believe a particular rider can go on to bigger things, but there are also times when something about a rider – be it determination, aggression – makes that person stand out, regardless of whether they are regularly on the top step come presentation time.
The 2024 Australian Junior Dirt Track Championships were staged recently and it was fortunate in two ways that it did go ahead. Originally allocated to the North West Victorian Club, insufficient entries were received to make the meeting viable. Then the Central Coast Junior Motorcycle Club (CCJMCC) put their hand up to host the meeting and Motorcycling Australia gave the go-ahead.
However, bad weather in the week leading up to the meeting cast doubt on it proceeding. But, thankfully, the club pressed on and was rewarded with two days of great competition and widespread acclaim from families, some of whom had travelled from as far away as Townsville in the north, Melbourne in the south and Adelaide in the west, as well as all points in between.
This wasn’t the first time the CCJMCC had staged a national championship meeting. It got me thinking about previous national title meetings the club has hosted, as well as title meetings at other venues I’ve been announcer at (for the juniors), and which riders have emerged through the ranks – whether they be ones who succeeded at each stage as they progressed through the various age brackets, ones who took a while to get on to victory rostrums, or ones who only bloomed when they entered the seniors.
Remembering the pioneers
The Australian Junior Speedway Championships – both Individual and Pairs – were staged on the last two nights of 2004 at the Allen Park MVRG track at Somersby near Gosford.
For the CCJMCC, it was their first ever crack at a national championship meeting and they installed temporary lighting so that the racing continued well into the evening.
The two nights fell in between the first two rounds of the Australian Solo Championship staged at Gosford and Newcastle respectively, so plenty of travelling fans got to see the juniors as well.
Back then junior speedway was not regularly seen by fans, so there were few known ‘names’ even among New South Wales riders, even more so among the visitors – but some were already chalking up title wins in either long track or dirt track or both.
Over the next two decades, some of the participants from that meeting have played a prominent role in speedway. Individual honours went to South Australian Jason Norman but when he went into the senior ranks he soon disappeared and was never seen again.
Second place went to a 12-year-old from Queensland who already had class wins in the Australian Junior Long Track Championships for three years in a row. He went on to more class wins while in the juniors, along with two more runner-up finishes in the junior speedway title. He must have liked the Somersby track because in his first ever senior meeting he won the prestigious Central Coast Cup in 2008.
Three consecutive Australian Under 21 Speedway Championships and two World Under 21 Championships led him into the Speedway Grand Prix series and the ultimate achievement of becoming world champion was seemingly in reach when his career was tragically ended in a crash in 2015. His name? Darcy Ward.
Road to international success
Third place went to Sam Masters, one of four consecutive appearances in the final of this title meeting without a win, but he did also have long track success.
Now 33, he still races professionally in Britain and Poland and was Australian (Senior) speedway champion in 2017.
Masters wasn’t the only rider from that 2004 title meeting who has gone on to a long speedway career – still racing overseas are Justin Sedgmen, who was fifth at Somersby and has won a string of state championships, and Rohan Tungate, who certainly did not turn heads at Somersby yet went on to win the Australian Championship in 2018 and 2024.
More than half of that championship line-up, as well as some of the riders in the support events, went on to race overseas – including Josh Gracjzonek, who won eight Queensland championships and still races domestically, while the now-retired Taylor Poole did not get a berth in the title meeting but did go on to win an Australian Under 21 Championship.
Speedway riders often go on to longer careers!
Legacy of Champions
The CCJMCC obviously enjoyed staging a national title meeting and in 2006 they hosted the Australian Junior Dirt Track Championships. Among the class winners there were Darcy Ward, new SGP participant for 2025 Brady Kurtz, future senior dirt track champion Jake Allen, long-time speedway rider Alex Davies, future Postie Bike star Brody Nowlan, and a Queenslander who is still battling it out on the world stage: Jack Miller.
In 2003, future MotoGP racer Miller was third in the 65cc class for the 7 to Under 9s; by 2005 on his home track in Townsville he contested three classes, winning the 65cc class this time for the 9 to Under 13s, as well as a second and a sixth placing in other classes.
In the first half of that decade, both Josh Waters and Glenn Scott had chalked up numerous class wins at dirt track and long track championship on their way to significant careers on the tar.
Around this time some others who were making a mark included Matthew Davies, who went on to race World Superstock 600 and World Supersport and is the reigning Australian Dirt Track Sidecar champion; Todd Kurtz preceded his brother on the way to national dirt track and track and state speedway successes; as well as present-day speedway performers Josh Pickering, brothers Ben and Zach Cook, and Brayden Elliott – who is still plying his wares road racing in the UK.
Also emerging around the latter part of the first decade of the millennium was Arthur Sissis, who finished his junior speedway days as the most dominant performer ever at that level of the sport. But Sissis is the perfect example of an outstanding junior who did not convert that to success as a senior, as he only had a brief flirtation with senior speedway as a 19-year-old, in between the two phases of his road-racing days.
In 2010, the CCJMCC staged the Australian Junior Long Track Championship. This was a title meeting that advanced a number of riders towards some significant speedway careers. Class winners included Ben Cook (the only dual winner), Mitchell Cluff, Zaine Kennedy and Jake Allen, while on the lower steps of the dais were Zach Cook, Jack Holder and Josh Pickering – all still going strong on the world speedway stage.
In the victory for Cluff in the 80cc 4-stroke Modified class for the 7 to Under 10s, he triumphed ahead of current Aussie Superbike contender Broc Pearson and Matthew Gilmore – who, like Sissis, never converted outstanding junior speedway success (including two FIM event victories) into a significant senior career.
Another name to appear among the placings was Remy Gardner, beaten to the top step by Ben Cook in the 11 to Under 13s Big Wheel class.
FOUNDATION OF A RACING CAREER
When the likes of Wayne Gardner, Troy Bayliss and Jamie Stauffer all guide their sons to start out their motorcycle journey in the dirt track ranks, it speaks volumes for that path as a career foundation.
This championship featured two Girls classes – won by Tayla Jones and Mackenzie Tricker.
Digging farther into the list of participants you find Ty Lynch, Max Croker, Michael Blair, Keegan Pickering, Max Whale, Tom Edwards, Cyshan Weale, Robbie Menzies-Sargant, Luca Gardner – among them there are several going strong and unfortunately some whose careers were cut short.
‘Names’ kept emerging in 2013 across the two national championship meetings. In the 65cc class for the 7 to Under 9s, Senna Agius took the win ahead of John Lytras and Max Stauffer; Oli Bayliss beat his father to winning an Australian championship; recently crowned AFTN champion Tom Herrick scored a win; and Broc Pearson was the only dual class winner.
The other feature at West Wyalong was the fantastic record of the Cowra Club in producing five different class winners: Josh Dominello, Ben and Zach Cook, Jack Dawes and Thomas Duggan.
When the Track Championship was staged at Barleigh Ranch, one of three riders to score a double was nine-year-old Joel Kelso, who needed blocks to rest his feet on at the start.
Fast forward to 2017 when the Australian Junior Dirt Track Championships were staged at the Taree Club’s oiled Old Bar track and check out the results there. The most successful rider was host club rider Kye Andrews, who won three classes for the 13 to Under 16s, but after a handful of senior meetings he moved interstate for work and has been lost to the sport.
Tom Drane, who is going great guns in the US flat track scene, was a class winner, as was current road racing movers Senna Agius, Jacob Roulstone, Hayden Nelson, John Lytras and Cameron Dunker.
Australia’s best junior speedway prospect, Beau Bailey, got on the rostrum, as did Archie McDonald, Billy Van Eerde, Tom Edwards and Harrison Voight.
McDonald did enjoy championship wins over the next few years and he always stood out as someone with plenty of fire and determination who was likely to go places in some discipline of the sport.
The following year at Kurri Kurri Juniors there were more wins for Drane, Dunker and Roulstone, while McDonald was a class winner – as was Riley Nauta.
The next generation of talent
So who are the riders to watch now from the 2024 Australian Junior Dirt Track Championships, hosted by the Central Coast Junior Motor Cycle Club?
Purely based on results, Townsville teen Neiko Donovan was the standout, winning all three classes he contested in a busy program with practice and five races in each class – more than 60 laps of racing.
His toughest rivals in the 13 to Under 16 classes were Thomas Gotts, Max Earl and Bodie Paige.
Other class winners were host club rider Cohen McCosker and Riley Holder, who both scored minor placings as well, Cooper Quinn, Hugo Holmes, Hayden Duggan and the only champion who was unbeaten throughout, Ruby James.
And we cannot forget that the stars of 2030 or 2040 might not have been winners at Somersby in 2024; it would not surprise if placegetters like Kru Tulloch, Braxsen Anderson, Kai Moran, Zac Salmon and George Holmkvist become names we hear much more about. But where?
Well, it could be in speedway or road racing, while increasing numbers are taking an interest in the US flat track scene.
Watching them flourish
One important part of the role of announcer at a race meeting is doing the presentations and over the years it has been pleasing to see mumbling, bumbling seven or eight-year-olds grow into well-spoken teenagers who have something interesting to say when a microphone is stuck under their nose!
Not only was I delighted to see Senna Agius’s race success in the Moto2 class at last year’s Phillip Island round of MotoGP but didn’t he speak so well?
My interest in road racing these days focuses on the many riders who have emerged from the dirt track ranks over time, and I’m sure that will continue as Australia punches above its weight in producing significant performers on the world stage in speedway and road racing.
If you get a chance to come out and watch a junior meeting, you may even get to see them before they become superstars.
