SPEEDWAY GP WRAP | Aussies On The Rise in 2025

Brady Kurtz’s brilliant late-season form capped a year of growth across every level of world speedway

Brady Kurtz won the last five rounds of the Speedway GP series to come agonisingly close to denying Bartosz Zmarzlik a sixth world championship crown as one of the highlights of a very good 2025 for Australian speedway.

Victory in the Speedway of Nations tournament should not have come as a great surprise given that there were four Australians in the top 10 in the individual championship – Great Britain with two being the only other country with more than one representative in that top 10.

No other Polish rider joined Zmarzlik in that top 10 and their domination of Under 21 competition ended, while Ukraine produced their first world champion and Germany were shock Speedway of Nations 2 winners as success spread wider across countries.

The most pleasing aspect for Australia is that Kurtz, Jack Holder and Max Fricke all turned 29 during 2025, with seemingly their best seasons still ahead of them.

Just as promising with a view to the future was the performance of some young riders at Under 21 and Under 16 level, as well as significant advancement by some riders in various league competitions in Europe.

Tate Zischke and Mitchell McDiarmid took Australia to third in the Speedway of Nations 2, for under 21 riders, to back up some impressive league scoring, while Beau Bailey and Cooper Antone were again on the rostrum with third placings in the SGP3 and SGP4 competitions respectively.

Others to improve their standings this year were Ryan Douglas, Josh Pickering, Keynan Rew and Ben Cook.

Germany surrendered long track supremacy to Great Britain in the Long Track of Nations tournament, while Brit Zac Wajtknecht took the individual honours.

Without Russian involvement, the World Ice Racing Championship has a different complexion as Swedish rider Martin Haarahiltunen won the title for a fourth year in a row, while Czech rider Ervin Krajcovic reclaimed the Flat Track World Championship from American Sammy Halbert.

Tom Drane became the first non-American to win a USA Flat Track Championship with, in the end, a comfortable victory in the Singles class. He is going from strength to strength.

DOMESTICALLY

Brady Kurtz kick-started 2025 with an emphatic victory in the Australian Senior Solo Championship, which was finalised over three rounds, with the scheduled final round in Brisbane lost to the weather. It was a repeat of his 2016 victory for Kurtz, who won the opening two rounds before outgoing champion Rohan Tungate at least finished on a high by winning in his only final appearance.

Jack Holder, Chris Holder and Keynan Rew were next in line behind Kurtz.

Sidecar racing was dominated by Mark Plaisted/Ben Pitt, who won every major meeting they contested. The highlight of the season was the Oceania and Australian Championship double – a fourth win in both for Plaisted.

Away from the championship meetings there was not an extensive domestic speedway racing calendar, which was a worrying sign as some tracks disappeared and some meetings did not eventuate due to lack of numbers.

Track and dirt track racing continued to provide a quality of racing that deserves greater appreciation, with the Australian championships in both disciplines producing Ronan Jacobs (Pro 450) and Briony Hendrickson (Womens) as winners in both disciplines, while Hendrickson was the only rider to repeat a 2024 title win.

These disciplines continue to provide an exciting talent pool of riders moving into speedway, American flat track or road racing.

SAD FAREWELLS

• 8-time World Ice Speedway champion Nikolai Krasnikov
• Former Australian speedway test team riders Chum Taylor and Kevin Torpie
• Long-time race officials Barry Newton and Trevor Dare

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