The other Australian taking on and beating the world

Australia has another motorsport world championship contender who, on Saturday evening won his first ever Grand Prix and is running second to a five-time world champion with four Grands Prix to go.

Meet Brody Kurtz, the latest Australian to shine in the hectic and spectacular combat-on-wheels that is World Championship speedway – Speedway Grand Prix.

While bike speedway has a modest profile in Australia and NZ – there were three SGP events held on a drop-in oval at Melbourne’s Docklands Stadium from 2015 to 2017 – in the UK and Northern Europe, especially Scandinavian countries, it is huge.

Big permanent tracks, within football-sized stadiums welcome an army of travelling fans, not just to world championship events, but an array of national ‘league’ (Town vs Town) series – in the UK, Sweden, Poland, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Germany.

The stars of the sport can find themselves racing three times a week in season – some riding in more than one league, in different countries, as well as the international scene.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about SGP 2025-style is how little the core of the sport has changed over the decades.

There have been minor technical upgrades, but the bikes are almost unchanged – no brakes, one fixed gear, no suspension. No ‘electric,’ no hybrid, no aero – just 500cc single-cylinder four-strokes on methanol.

Races still see four riders line up for four lap heats (points 3,2,1,0) leading (in SGP) to semi-finals and a single four-lap final – all taking about a minute. Action of the most concentrated kind (now with a drone following the action for added effect).

Like MotoGP riders, Speedway competitors need to heal quickly … Such is the intensity of the competition, on dirt, elbow-to-elbow that accidents happen … a lot. The one noticeable and welcome development has been the lining of what were immoveable outer fences with air-fences …

Australia has its own proud history in the World Speedway Championship – triple champion Jason Crump in the 2004-2009 period, Chris Holder (2012) and Jason Doyle (2017) – and now 28-year-old Brady Kurtz, from Cowra, NSW, threatens to add to that roll of honour.

He’s been making his way in the sport for 11 years, riding for four different British league teams – currently with defending champions, the famous Belle Vue team. It’s been a long road, but, for 2025 he qualified for the full Speedway GP series for the first time – and is making an impact of Piastri-like proportions.

Kurtz faces a similar foe – a defending, five-times (in six years) world champion, Bartosz Zmarzlik.

The Polish star had only had one bad round (of five) – three wins and a second – as the field headed for his home track – the superb, atmospheric, purpose-built multi-use (mainly speedway) 15,000 capacity Edward Jancarz Stadium in Gorzow.

For his part, in his first GP season, the Aussie had also had just one bad round, along with two seconds, a third, and a fourth.

Things hadn’t gone well in the lead-up – he’d suffered a wrist injury after crashing with Swedish star Fredrik Lindgren in a heat of the British round, in Manchester, the previous weekend (but still raced the final, finishing second).

He’d spent the week in Poland undergoing intense physiotherapy – organised by his Polish club, Sparta Wroclaw.

“I was in Wroclaw all week getting physio for five hours a day – just to try and get the swelling out of my hand. I couldn’t close my hand at all. It was stuck.”

It was marginally okay as he headed to the stadium.

“When it came to dropping the clutch, I was lucky the two fingers on the right of the (left)  hand are good. I was having physio for I don’t know how many hours, but they got the job done and I was ready to go,” he would report later.

After the heats, he and Zmarzlik were the two automatic final qualifiers and lined up side-by-side, the Pole in the inside, for the 60 seconds of action that would decide the GP.

Kurtz won. He made the start of his life and kept the best in the world at bay for his first GP win. At Zmarzlik’s track.

“I knew my only option was to make the start because I was never going to pass Bartek if he got in front. I think that was one of the longest races of my life. All I could hear was Bartek’s engine behind me! I was counting the laps and I was glad to finally see the chequered flag …”

Take a look at the final (link below, or QR Code) and enjoy it. There’s four GPs to go and the defending champion has 11 points up his sleeve (113 to 102). Anything could happen en-route to the final GP, in Denmark, in September.

And, oh yes, there’s actually three other Australians in the 20-rider 2025  line-up – Jack Holder (fifth, and winner of the other race this year), Max Fricke (sixth) and former champ Jason Doyle, who has been struggling with injury.

It’s live on Fox/Kayo (in the late hours) – next round, July 5 …

Buy the new issue of Auto Action Premium HERE

Read the new issue of Auto Action Digital HERE

Don’t forget the print edition of Auto Action available via subscription here or you can purchase a copy of the latest issue from one of our outlets here. For more of the latest motorsport news, subscribe to AUTO ACTION magazine