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

Juniors

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.Perfect Kurtz claims second Australian Under 16 125cc Solo Speedway Championship
, fullnoise.com.au, 13 January 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2013Kurtz and Holder lead NSW to 2012 Aust Under 16 125cc Teams Speedway Championship
, fullnoise.com.au, 16 January 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2013

Seniors

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.Kinvig, David (2013)
Speedway: Monarchs at Max strength after snatching Fricke from Tigers’ lair
, '' Edinburgh Evening News'', 5 January 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2013 In January 2013 he won the Australian Under-21 championship at the

Loxford Park Speedway The Loxford Park Speedway is a motorcycle speedway track located in the town of Loxford near in New South Wales (NSW). It is home to the Kurri Kurri Speedway Club and the Kurri Cobras. History Construction of the track commenced in 2008 with ...

in Kurri Kurri, beating

Taylor Poole Taylor, Taylors or Taylor's may refer to: People * Taylor (surname) **List of people with surname Taylor * Taylor (given name), including Tayla and Taylah * Taylor sept, a branch of Scottish clan Cameron * Justice Taylor (disambiguation) Plac ...

, Justin Sedgmen, and Alex Davies in the final, and becoming the youngest winner of the title since Leigh Adams in 1988.Oakes, Peter (2013) "New Champ Keeps Cool", ''Speedway Star'', 26 January 2013, pp. 6-7Fricke Flies to Aussie Crown
, speedwaygp.com, 19 January 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2013 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. Together with Sam Masters, Max Fricke won the 2014 Premier League Best Pairs at Somerset. 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. Fricke contested his first Under-21 World Championship in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, finishing the three round series held in Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic in a credible 6th place with 28 points scored. 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 The 2015 Don Smallgoods Australian FIM Speedway Grand Prix was the twelfth and final round of the 2015 Speedway Grand Prix season. It took place on 24 October at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia. Riders Australian rider Sam Masters ...

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. On 13 December 2015, Fricke finished second in the 2015/16 South Australian Solo Championship at Gillman in Adelaide behind NSW rider

Rohan Tungate Rohan Tungate (born 27 January 1990) is an Australian speedway rider who has competed in the United Kingdom and Poland. He won the Australian Solo Championship in 2018. Career Born in Kurri Kurri, New South Wales, Tungate made his British speed ...

with Sam Masters and Ty Proctor finishing in 3rd and 4th respectively. 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 Cameron Andrew George Heeps (born 27 October 1995) is an Australian speedway rider. Career He began his British career riding for the Mildenhall Fen Tigers in 2011, winning the Knockout Cup. He won the National League Pairs Championship with L ...

finished in 2nd place in the 2016 Team Speedway Junior World Championship in

Norrköping Norrköping (; ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Linköp ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. 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 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

), Leigh Adams (

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

), Jason Crump (

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

) and Darcy Ward (

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

). Following a heavy crash by

2016 Speedway Grand Prix The 2016 Speedway Grand Prix season was the 22nd season of the Speedway Grand Prix era, and decided the 71st FIM Speedway World Championship. It was the sixteenth series under the promotion of Benfield Sports International, an IMG company. Tai Woff ...

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. 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

. 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. On 12 January 2019 he won the Australian Solo Championship, a second place in the fifth round enough to secure the title ahead of

and Chris Holder. 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 The 2022 Speedway Grand Prix season was the 28th season of the Speedway Grand Prix era, and decided the 77th FIM Speedway World Championship. It was the first series promoted by Discovery Sports Events. Artem Laguta was the reigning champion, havi ...

, which included winning the Stadion Narodowy, Warsaw Grand Prix. He qualified for the

2023 Speedway Grand Prix The 2023 Speedway Grand Prix season was the 29th season of the Speedway Grand Prix era, and decided the 78th FIM Speedway World Championship. It was the second series promoted by Discovery Sports Events. Bartosz Zmarzlik was the defending champ ...

by virtue of finishing 4th in the

2023 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification The 2023 Individual Speedway World Championship Grand Prix Qualification or GP Challenge (held in 2022) was a series of motorcycle speedway meetings used to determine the three riders that qualified for the 2023 Speedway Grand Prix. The series c ...

. However, the highlight of his season was winning the 2022 Speedway of Nations for Australia with Jack Holder. 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.

Major results

World individual Championship

- 35th *

2017 Speedway Grand Prix The 2017 Speedway Grand Prix season was the 23rd season of the Speedway Grand Prix era, and decided the 72nd FIM Speedway World Championship. It was seventeenth series under the promotion of Benfield Sports International, an IMG company. The world ...

- 18th *

2019 Speedway Grand Prix The 2019 Speedway Grand Prix season was the 25th season of the Speedway Grand Prix era, and decided the 74th FIM Speedway World Championship. It was the nineteenth series under the promotion of Benfield Sports International, an IMG company. The ti ...

- 16th *

2020 Speedway Grand Prix The 2020 Speedway Grand Prix season was the 26th season of the Speedway Grand Prix era, and decided the 75th Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, FIM Speedway World Championship. It was the 20th series under the promotion of Benfield Sports ...

- 10th (including Toruń grand prix win) *

2021 Speedway Grand Prix The 2021 Speedway Grand Prix season was the 27th season of the Speedway Grand Prix era, and decided the 76th FIM Speedway World Championship. The series was dominated by Polish venues once again with six of the 11 races taking place in Poland. Grea ...

- 8th *

- 13th (including Warsaw grand prix win)

World team Championships

2017 Speedway World Cup The 2017 Monster Energy FIM Speedway World Cup (SWC) was the seventeenth and the last FIM Speedway World Cup, the annual international speedway world championship tournament. It took place between 1 July and 8 July 2017 and involved nine national ...

- 5th *

2018 Speedway of Nations The 2018 Speedway of Nations was the first FIM Speedway of Nations. The competition consisted of two race-off events and a two-legged final. The event was won by Russia, who beat Great Britain in the Grand Final. It replaced the Speedway World Cup ...

- 4th *

2019 Speedway of Nations The 2019 Speedway of Nations was the second FIM Speedway of Nations. The competition consisted of two race-off events and a two-legged final. The event was won by Russia for the second consecutive year. They beat Poland in the Grand Final with Aus ...

3rd *

2020 Speedway of Nations The 2020 Speedway of Nations (sponsored by Monster Energy) was the third FIM Speedway of Nations. The competition was scheduled to consist of a two-legged final but was reduced to a single leg because of heavy rain on the opening day. The Speedwa ...

- 5th *

2021 Speedway of Nations The 2021 Speedway of Nations (sponsored by Monster Energy) was the fourth FIM Speedway of Nations. The competition consisted of two semi-finals and a final. The final was held on 16 & 17 October 2021 and was won by Great Britain, with Poland taki ...

- 4th * 2022 Speedway of Nations - Winner

Individual Under-21 World Championship

- / / - 6th - 28pts *

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

- / / - Winner - 46pts

Under-21 Speedway World Cup

- Mildura,

Olympic Park Speedway The Motordrome, also known as the Olympic Park Speedway, the Melbourne Speedway or the Victorian Speedway, was a former speedway and Australian rules football ground located approximately on the site of the present day Melbourne Rectangular Stad ...

- 3rd - 29pts (6) *

Vargarna Speedway Vargarna are a Swedish motorcycle speedway team based in Norrköping, Sweden. The team race at the Norrköpings Motorstadion. History The name Vargarna literally translates into English as "The Wolves". The team won the Swedish Speedway Team Cham ...

- 2nd - 37pts (8)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fricke, Max Living people Australian speedway riders Belle Vue Aces riders Edinburgh Monarchs riders Leicester Lions riders 1996 births