LEICESTER’S winter signings Max Fricke and Justin Sedgmen both made the Final in the first round of the Australian Championship at Gillman on Tuesday.
New Watling JCB Lions No.1 Fricke finished third overall after recovering from a bad start to the meeting whilst Sedgmen, racing as a wild card, finished fourth.
Fricke, who won the 2022 title in a one-off meeting, ran surprising last places in both of his first two rides, but then turned his fortunes around with three successive wins to make it into the semi-finals on nine points.
Sedgmen, meanwhile, was consistent throughout with two wins backed up by three second places as he finished on 12 points.
There was drama in the second semi-final which featured both of the Lions riders, as first Sam Masters came to grief and was excluded, and then Rohan Tungate was also excluded in the re-run for causing Sedgmen to come down.
Fricke beat Sedgmen in a two-man second re-run, but the Final was won by former Lions star Jason Doyle ahead of Jack Holder, who got the better of Fricke in a fierce battle for second place.
Doyle has 18 points overall with Holder on 17, whilst Fricke has 11 with the series continuing at Albury-Wodonga on Saturday.
