Max Fricke (born 29 March 1996) is an Australian

speedway Speedway may refer to: Racing Race tracks *Daytona International Speedway, a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida. *Edmonton International Speedway, also known as Speedway Park, a former motor raceway in Edmonton, Alberta. *Indianapolis Motor Spe ...

rider. He is a World team champion, three time Australian champion and four times Australian Under-21 Champion.

Career

Fricke competed in junior levels of motocross and speedway in Australia, competing 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 Fricke moved up to senior level in the 2012/13 season. In December 2012, he was signed by

Edinburgh Monarchs The Edinburgh Monarchs are a Scottish speedway team based in Armadale. They compete in the SGB Championship, racing on Friday nights during the speedway season. The club is run by a board of directors, chaired by Alex Harkess and also runs a ...

for their 2013 British

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

team on a five-point assessed

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

, 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 The ''Edinburgh Evening News'' is a daily newspaper and website based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded by John Wilson (1844–1909) and first published in 1873. It is printed daily, except on Sundays. It is owned by National World, whic ...

'', 5 January 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2013 In January 2013, he won the Australian Under-21 championship at the Loxford Park Speedway in

Kurri Kurri Kurri Kurri is a small town in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, in the Cessnock LGA. At the , its population was 6,174. Kurri Kurri is the largest town in a group of towns and hamlets, including Stanford Merthyr, Pelaw Main, We ...

, 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. 6-7"", 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 Gillman Speedway (sometimes called Gillman Speedway Stadium) is a purpose built, long motorcycle speedway located in the Adelaide suburb of Gillman in South Australia. The track opened in 1998 and runs approximately 13 meetings per season fr ...

in Adelaide. Fricke finished the heats with 13 points before winning the final. Together with Sam Masters, Fricke won the 2014 Premier League Pairs Championship for Edinburgh at

Somerset Rebels The Somerset Rebels were a British motorcycle speedway, speedway team based in Highbridge, Somerset, Highbridge, Somerset. Founded in 2000, the club competed in the British SGB Championship until 2019. Their home track was located at the Oak Tr ...

. Fricke fishing equal third on 48 points with Justin Sedgmen in the four round 2015 Australian Championship (his best result to date) before winning his third straight Australian U/21 Championship at Loxford Park on 17 January, defeating Jack Holder and Brady Kurtz in a closely fought final. Fricke contested his first Under-21 World Championship in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

, finishing the three round series held in Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic in 6th place with 28 points scored. Although he did not get to ride on the night, Fricke was named as a reserve rider 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 scored 6 of his team's 29 points as they finished behind winners

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and runner-up

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

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

, Sweden. On 2 October 2016, Fricke won the 2016 World Under-21 Championship becoming the 5th Australian rider to win the title. Fricke was named first reserve for the later rounds of the 2016 Speedway Grand Prix and following a broken chain to wild card rider Brady Kurtz 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 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

. On 28 January 2017, Fricke won his fourth 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' five podium finishes in the title with the same four 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 Rohan Tungate and

Chris Holder Christopher Robert Holder (born 24 September 1987 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian speedway rider, who was the 2012 World Speedway Champion. He is also five times Australian champion (2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014. Career Hold ...

. 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. He qualified for the 2023 Speedway Grand Prix by virtue of finishing 4th in the 2023 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification. However, the highlight of his season was winning the

2022 Speedway of Nations The 2022 Speedway of Nations was the fifth FIM Speedway of Nations. The competition consisted of two semi-finals and a final. Great Britain were the defending champions having won the 2021 competition. Both the semi-finals and final were hel ...

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 and for GKM Grudziądz for the 2023 Polish speedway season. In 2023, he was part of the Australian team that finished fourth in the

2023 Speedway World Cup The 2023 FIM Speedway World Cup (SWC) was the 18th Speedway World Cup, an international motorcycle speedway world championship tournament organised by the FIM. The 2023 edition was the first since 2017 and took place between 25 July and 29 Jul ...

final. 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 The 2024 Speedway Grand Prix season was the 30th season of the Speedway Grand Prix era, and decided the 79th FIM Speedway World Championship. It was the third series promoted by Discovery Sports Events. A new sprint race was introduced at sele ...

. He re-signed with Leicester for the 2024 season. His 2024 season started well after he finished second in the 2024 Australian Championship, following a tight battle with Rohan Tungate. Following an injury to fellow Australian

Jason Doyle Jason Kevin Doyle (born 6 October 1985) is an Australian motorcycle speedway rider. He became World Champion in 2017 after winning the 2017 Speedway Grand Prix. Doyle is a member of the Australia national speedway team and represented his coun ...

before round 4 of 2024 Grand Prix season, Fricke was called up as a replacement. Fricke ended his 2024 season by qualifying for the 2025 Speedway Grand Prix by finishing fourth in the 2025 GP Challenge.

Major results

World individual Championship

* 2016 Speedway Grand Prix - 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 wo ...

- 18th * 2019 Speedway Grand Prix - 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 FIM Speedway World Championship. It was the 20th series under the promotion of Benfield Sports International, an IMG company A new p ...

- 10th * 2021 Speedway Grand Prix - 8th * 2022 Speedway Grand Prix - 13th * 2023 Speedway Grand Prix - 9th *

- 11th

Grand Prix wins

*1:

2020 Speedway Grand Prix of Poland The 2020 FIM Speedway Grand Prix of Poland was the first, second, third, fourth, seventh and eighth rounds of the 2020 Speedway Grand Prix season (the World Championship). The calendar of events was severely disrupted by the effects of the COVID ...

(Toruń) *2: 2022 Speedway Grand Prix of Germany (Warsaw)

World team Championships

* 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 *

- Winner *

- 4th

Individual Under-21 World Championship

- 6th - 28pts *

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

- Winner - 46pts

Under-21 Speedway World Cup

- 3rd - 29pts (6) *

- 2nd - 37pts (8)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fricke, Max Living people Australian speedway riders 21st-century Australian sportsmen Belle Vue Aces riders Edinburgh Monarchs riders Australian expatriate speedway riders in Scotland Leicester Lions riders Australian expatriate speedway riders in England 1996 births World Games silver medalists for Australia Medalists at the 2017 World Games