Max Fricke

Australian speedway rider (born 1996)

Max Fricke

Born|  (1996-03-29) 29 March 1996 (age 27)
Mansfield, Victoria, Australia
Nickname| Fast Max/Fricke
Nationality| Australian
Career history
Great Britain
2013–2014| Edinburgh
2015–2020, 2022| Belle Vue
2023–2024| Leicester
Poland
2015–2017| Rybnik
2018–2020| Wrocław
2021–2022| Zielona Góra
2023–2024| Grudziadz
Sweden
2015| Gnistorna
2016–2019| Rospiggarna
2020–2023| Indianerna
2024| Västervik
Denmark
2014| Esbjerg
2014–2016| Region Varde
2019| Grindsted
Speedway Grand Prix statistics
SGP Number| 46
Starts| 33
Podiums| 2 (2-0-0)
Finalist| 3 time
Winner| 2 times
Individual honours
2013, 2014, 2015, 2017| Australian Under-21 Champion
2015| Czech Golden Ribbon
2016| World Under-21 Champion
2019, 2020, 2022| Australian Champion
Team honours
2022| 2022 Speedway of Nations
2014| Premier League Pairs
2016| Danish Speedway League
2016| Elitserien
2022| British champions

Max Fricke (born 29 March 1996) is an Australian speedway rider. He is a World team champion, twice Australian champion and four times Australian Under-21 Champion.

## Career[edit]

### Juniors[edit]

Fricke competed in junior levels of motocross and speedway in Australia, competed in the 2011 and 2012 FIM Youth Gold Cup tournaments, and finished in fourth place in the Australian Under-16 125cc Championship and second in the 125cc Team Championship in January 2012.[1][2][3]

### Seniors[edit]

Fricke moved up to senior level in the 2012/13 season. In December 2012 he was signed by Edinburgh Monarchs for their 2013 British Premier League team on a five-point assessed average, having spent the previous two summers in Britain gaining experience.[4][5]

In January 2013 he won the Australian Under-21 championship at the Loxford Park Speedway in Kurri Kurri, beating Taylor Poole, Justin Sedgmen, and Alex Davies in the final, and becoming the youngest winner of the title since Leigh Adams in 1988.[3][6] On 25 January 2014, Fricke won his second straight Australian Under-21 Championship at the Gillman Speedway in Adelaide. Fricke finished the heats with 13 points, 2 behind Nick Morris, before winning the final from Ryan Douglas and Jack Holder, the younger brother of 2012 World Champion Chris Holder, after Nick Morris had crashed on the last lap whilst in second place.[7][8]

Together with Sam Masters, Fricke won the 2014 Premier League Pairs Championship for Edinburgh at Somerset.[9]

After fishing equal third on 48 points with Justin Sedgmen in the four round 2015 Australian Championship (his best result to date), Fricke was classified fourth due to Sedgmen's better A and B Final results over the series (Fricke only qualified for the A Final in Rd.3 at Undera Park while Sedgmen qualified for the A Finals in Rd.1 at Gillman and Rd.2 at Olympic Park in Mildura).

A week after Australian Championship, Fricke then went on to win his third straight Australian U/21 Championship at Loxford Park on 17 January, defeating Jack Holder and Brady Kurtz in a closely fought final. He was presented his winners trophy by Chris Holder who himself won a record four Aussie U/21 titles (Holder jointly holds the record with Leigh Adams). With his third win, Fricke now sits equal second for total U/21 wins with Travis McGowan and former dual Under-21 World Champion Darcy Ward.[10]

Fricke contested his first Under-21 World Championship in 2015, finishing the three round series held in Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic in a credible 6th place with 28 points scored.[11]

Although he did not get to ride on the night, Fricke and fellow Aussie Justin Sedgemen were named as the reserve riders for the 2015 Speedway Grand Prix of Australia held on 24 October at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne.

A week after the SGP in Melbourne, Fricke was part of the Australian Under-21 Team alongside Nick Morris, Jack Holder and Brady Kurtz that finished in third place in the 2015 Team Speedway Junior World Championship Final held at Olympic Park in Mildura, the first time the U/21 World Cup Final had been held outside of the UK or Europe. Fricke had a quiet night by his standards scoring only 6 of his team's 29 points as they finished behind winners Poland and runner-up Denmark.[12]

On 13 December 2015, Fricke finished second in the 2015/16 South Australian Solo Championship at Gillman in Adelaide behind NSW rider Rohan Tungate with Sam Masters and Ty Proctor finishing in 3rd and 4th respectively.[13] Fricke would go on to finish the championship in 3rd place having scored 52 points to finish behind winner Brady Kurtz and runner-up Sam Masters.

On 20 August 2016, Fricke, along with reigning Australian Champion Brady Kurtz, Jake Allen, Jack Holder and reserve rider Cameron Heeps finished in 2nd place in the 2016 Team Speedway Junior World Championship in Norrköping, Sweden.[14]

On 2 October 2016, Max Fricke won the 2016 World Under-21 Championship becoming the 5th Australian rider to win the title following Steve Baker (1983), Leigh Adams (1992), Jason Crump (1995) and Darcy Ward (2009 and 2010).[15][16]

Following a heavy crash by 2016 Speedway Grand Prix points leader Jason Doyle in the penultimate round of the series in Toruń, Poland which ruled the former Australian champion out of the final round in Melbourne (and also saw his World Championship aspirations vanish), Sam Masters was moved into the main field with Fricke moved from second to first reserve for the meeting.[17] Following a broken chain to Wildcard rider Brady Kurtz just before the start of Heat 11 of the SGP in Melbourne, Fricke got his first start in the senior World Championship and became the 200th rider to race in the series since its inception in 1995.

On 28 January 2017, Fricke won his 4th Australian U/21 Championship at Loxford Park in Kurri Kurri. By winning the title, Fricke joined Leigh Adams and Chris Holder as a four-time winner of the event. He also equaled Leigh Adams' 5 podium finishes in the title with the same 4 wins and one 3rd-place finish record.[18]

On 12 January 2019 he won the Australian Solo Championship, a second place in the fifth round enough to secure the title ahead of Rohan Tungate and Chris Holder.[19] He won his first Grand Prix in 2020 at Toruń.

Fricke finished in 13th place during the 2022 Speedway World Championship, after securing 52 points during the 2022 Speedway Grand Prix, which included winning the Stadion Narodowy, Warsaw Grand Prix.[20] He qualified for the 2023 Speedway Grand Prix by virtue of finishing 4th in the 2023 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification.[21] However, the highlight of his season was winning the 2022 Speedway of Nations for Australia with Jack Holder.[22][23] In addition he won a league title with the Belle Vue Aces during the SGB Premiership 2022.

He signed for Leicester Lions for the SGB Premiership 2023[24] and for GKM Grudziądz for the 2023 Polish speedway season.[25] In 2023, he was part of the Australian team that finished fourth in the 2023 Speedway World Cup final.[26]

He finished in ninth place during the 2023 Speedway Grand Prix and can be considered unlucky not to have earned a place for the 2024 Speedway Grand Prix.[27] He re-signed with Leicester for the 2024 season.[28] His 2024 season started well after he finished second in the 2024 Australian Championship, following a tight battle with Rohan Tungate.[29]

## Major results[edit]

### World individual Championship[edit]

* 2016 Speedway Grand Prix \- 35th
* 2017 Speedway Grand Prix \- 18th
* 2019 Speedway Grand Prix \- 16th
* 2020 Speedway Grand Prix \- 10th (including Toruń grand prix win)
* 2021 Speedway Grand Prix \- 8th
* 2022 Speedway Grand Prix \- 13th (including Warsaw grand prix win)
* 2023 Speedway Grand Prix \- 9th

### World team Championships[edit]

* 2017 Speedway World Cup \- 5th
* 2018 Speedway of Nations \- 4th
* 2019 Speedway of Nations 3rd
* 2020 Speedway of Nations \- 5th
* 2021 Speedway of Nations \- 4th
* 2022 Speedway of Nations \- Winner
* 2023 Speedway World Cup \- 4th

### Individual Under-21 World Championship[edit]

* 2015 \-  /  /  \- 6th - 28pts
* 2016 \-  /  /  \- Winner \- 46pts

### Under-21 Speedway World Cup[edit]

* 2015 \-  Mildura, Olympic Park Speedway \- 3rd \- 29pts (6)
* 2016 \-  Norrköping, Norrköping Motorstadion \- 2nd \- 37pts (8)

## References[edit]

1. ^ "Perfect Kurtz claims second Australian Under 16 125cc Solo Speedway Championship", fullnoise.com.au, 13 January 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2013
2. ^ "Kurtz and Holder lead NSW to 2012 Aust Under 16 125cc Teams Speedway Championship", fullnoise.com.au, 16 January 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2013
3. ^ a b Oakes, Peter (2013) "New Champ Keeps Cool", Speedway Star, 26 January 2013, pp. 6-7
4. ^ Kinvig, David (2013) "Speedway: Monarchs at Max strength after snatching Fricke from Tigers’ lair", Edinburgh Evening News, 5 January 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2013
5. ^ "Monarchs Snap Up Fricke Archived 16 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine", speedway365.com, 30 December 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2013
6. ^ "Fricke Flies to Aussie Crown", speedwaygp.com, 19 January 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2013
7. ^ Fricke Wins Thilling U/21 Title
8. ^ 2014 Australian U/21 Championship Final
9. ^ "IT'S SAM AND MAX FOR THE PAIRS". Edinburgh Speedway. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
10. ^ Frick wins 3rd straight Aussie U/21 title
11. ^ 2015 World U-21 Championship
12. ^ 2015 Under-21 Speedway World Cup
13. ^ 2015/16 SA Solo Championship
14. ^ 2016 Junior World Cup
15. ^ Fricke on top of the world
16. ^ Fricke grabs dream World Under-21 win
17. ^ Fricke first reserve in SGP of Australia
18. ^ Title No.4 for Fricke
19. ^ "Fricke indywidualnym mistrzem Australii! W nagrodę pojedzie w Grand Prix", Gazeta Wrocławska, 12 January 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2019
20. ^ "2022 Speedway Grand Prix results". FIM. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
21. ^ "2022 Speedway Grand Prix results". FIM. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
22. ^ "Aussies win 2022 FIM Speedway of Nations". MC News. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
23. ^ "Awesome Aussies". Speedway Star pages 3-10. 6 August 2022.
24. ^ "Fricke heads for Leicester". British Speedway. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
25. ^ "THE STAFF OF ZOOLESZCZ GKM GRUDZIĄDZ". GKM Grudziądz Speedway. Retrieved 6 March 2023.
26. ^ "POLAND WIN SPEEDWAY WORLD CUP AHEAD OF GREAT BRITAIN AS MACIEJ JANOWSKI BEATS ROBERT LAMBERT IN DECISIVE HEAT 20". Eurosport. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
27. ^ "Nine nations represented as 2024 Speedway GP line-up is confirmed". FIM Europe. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
28. ^ "Lions announce Fricke return". British Speedway. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
29. ^ "Tungate champion in Aussie drama". British Speedway. Retrieved 14 January 2024.