2021 North Brisbane Speedway Masters
Images by Craig Mayne/Endorphin Media
Saturday was a new era in Speedway in South East Queensland with the running of the inaugural North Brisbane Speedway Masters.
North Brisbane Junior Motorcycle Club contracted out the running of the Speedway part of the business to Darcy Ward Speedway Promotions. Many are aware of Darcy Ward’s successful stints in the European leagues.
Speedway Masters was an invitational meet bringing together many of Australia’s top Speedway riders. The ranks of which were bolstered by many riders still in Australia due to COVID-19 and travel restrictions on the return to Europe.
A few days out from the event, the sky threatened and the forecast was not promising, however Darcy’s Team got in and prepared the track and got the everything else sorted.
Saturday came and the sky was overcast but with only light rain forecast. Riders and their teams arrived early for a 1pm start of the open event. At noon there was a 12 round competition for the 125cc class.
At 1:00pm the main event was underway. The event was a 24 heat competition followed by repechage style finals. The 24, 23, 22nd and 21st placed riders raced with the winner racing the 20,19,18th placed riders and so on. If you had been having a bad day but came good at the end it was a long hard battle to get to the final. Each final was race with a subsequent three-minute break for the winner of the previous final to check his bike and get back to the start line for the next heat.
Racing was incredible with riders like Zane Keleher winning multiple heats to climb back up the riders list, unfortunately as is the case, exhaustion finally took its toll.
The ultimate final was between Ryan Douglas, Zaine Kennedy, Jason Crump and Nick Morris. Sadly, in the final event Nick Morris jumped the start and was ultimately excluded from the final.
Some absolutely stellar riding was witnessed trackside with the event livestreamed worldwide via a pay per view platform. There were many folks watching from all over.
This was a new format and event for the venue and the sign of things to come for Speedway in South East Queensland and the wider Australian Speedway world.
