Jack Holder 2026 Australian Champion
Gillman Media 10 January 2026
As expected, Jack Holder confirmed his second Australian Championship at Gillman Speedway on Friday night (9 January).
Holder went into the final round with a 4 point lead over Jaimon Lidsey. It wasn’t an insurmountable lead (Max Fricke took a 5 point lead into the final round in 2024 and did not win the title) but it was always going to be a big ask for Lidsey to overhaul the current World number 5, and so it proved.
Despite the best efforts of Lidsey, Rohan Tungate and Keynan Rew, who always ride well at Gillman (as does Holder), and the Cook brothers, who were two of the front-runners throughout the series, Holder again won the final, making it four out of four, and won the title by 8 points, with 72 points to Lidsey’s 64, with Tungate third on 61.
Top point scorer in the heats was Tungate with a superb 15 point maximum, with Holder, on 14 points, the other direct qualifier for the final where they were joined by semi-final winners Ben Cook (11) and Jaimon Lidsey (12), meaning three of the four finals featured the same four riders. The odd round out was round three in Mildura in which Cook did not ride because he was ill with food poisoning.
In his absence in Mildura it was Rew who made the final, and he was again one of the in-form riders at Gillman, and was unbeaten after 12 heats, including some breathtaking outside passes through turn four and praise must go here to Seane Chapman and Adam Possingham for their track preparation which allowed some full-blooded riding throughout the night without the track causing any unexpected surprises for the riders.
Ultimately, on this occasion, Rew came up one place short of a berth in the final, finishing second in a tough semi-final against Ben and Zach Cook. This was Zach’s lowest finishing round of the series but he still scored sufficient points to take overall fourth place in the series.
The final started with one of the most hair-raising first corners you are likely to see. It looked sure to end in tears for someone, but somehow they all safely negotiated it and once they settled down Holder roared away for a clear-cut win with Tungate winning the battle with Lidsey for second place.
Outside the top bracket, Mitchell McDiarmid had by far his best round of the series, although it unfortunately ended badly when he and Reid Battye crashed in the second semi-final, and Tate Zischke also showed much better form after a disappointing series.
As well as the honour of being Australian Champion, the riders were also competing for two places in the Speedway Grand Prix qualifying rounds and those places have gone to Holder and Lidsey. A third place will go to the highest placed Australian rider in Sunday night’s FIM Oceania Championship with Tungate, Ben Cook and Rew the likely front runners for that place. Lidsey is also in the line-up and could well take out the victory without having the pressure of chasing a SGP qualifying berth, while American Luke Becker, and British riders Scott Nicholls and Leon Flint should also be in the mix for a place in the final.
Full results on the Gillman Speedway website, Results tab. Updated FIM Oceania Championship line-up on Gillman Speedway website Nominations tab.
