Host Club Riders Dominate at the 2025 Australian Senior Dirt Track Championship

The 2025 Australian Senior Dirt Track Championship at Mick Doohan Raceway saw host club riders from the North Brisbane Junior Motorcycle Club dominate the event, claiming four of the six championship titles.

Riders from the Mike Hatcher Club on the Gold Coast and the Hunter Club in New South Wales each secured one championship title. Despite hot competition across all classes, no rider managed a dual-class win, and none of the 2024 champions retained their titles.

The first championship to be decided was the Pro Women Unlimited class, which attracted enough entrants to require two heats in each of the four rounds. Briony Hendrickson remained unbeaten in her heats, while Amy King and Tayla Street each lost to Hendrickson and beat each other once. In the final, Hendrickson claimed her 15th Australian title, ahead of King and Street, with Bree-Anna Etheridge finishing fourth. Defending champion Brittaney O’Brien finished back in sixth.

The Dirt Track Sidecars came closest to producing back-to-back champions. Darren Fien / Shaun Fien and defending champions Matthew Davies / Tom Northey clashed twice in the heats, each winning one. However, it was the Fiens who triumphed in the final, claiming their third title. Jim Jobling / Brodie Trembath finished in third, repeating last year’s result.

In the MX Open, Cyshan Weale dominated, remaining unbeaten in his heats and winning the final. The final had to be re-run after Cody Lewis and Cooper Anderson fell, which also ruled them out of the Pro 450 final. Weale led home Rory McQualter and Lachlan Russell, while Daniel Wicks, the champion for the past two years, lamented the restart as he had been in contention for a podium finish.

The Pro 250 class produced a new champion. Cooper Anderson, who had focused on the bigger capacity machines, didn’t race in this class. Rory McQualter, who missed last year due to injury, successfully repeated his 2023 title win. While he was unbeaten in his heats, he had to work hard in the decider to overtake Morty Michelmore, who was ultimately relegated to third place behind Brayden Bradford.

Cyshan Weale had the opportunity to score a double after remaining unbeaten in the heats of the Pro 450 class. However, in the decider, he got off to a poor start and was unable to pass Ronan Jacobs, who rode flawlessly to claim his biggest success to date. Jacobs, who qualified sixth, produced a 4, 2, 2, 3 record but won the race that mattered, with Lucas Quinn finishing in third.

In the ATV Open class, there was more rivalry between the Griffiths brothers. Matthew Griffiths and Joshua Griffiths split the wins in their heat clashes, making them equal top qualifiers. In the final, Joshua came out on top while Matthew accidentally dislodged his kill-switch, which relegated him to third place behind Ross Rizzo.

Other notable winners included Luke Barnes in the Over 40s class, Parker O’Brien in the 65cc 7-U/9 class, Beau Baker in the 85cc 2-str/150cc 4-str 9-U/13 class, and Neiko Donovan in the 2-str & 4-str 13-U/16 class.

A big shout-out goes to sidecar rider Kory McMurdo, who also worked wonders as the track curator, particularly after early morning rain on Sunday delayed the start of the second day of racing.