FIM SPEEDWAY: FRICKE: SEEKING AN EXTRA FEW PERCENT
Aussie ace Max Fricke says he is just searching for “an extra few percent” at the business end of a Speedway GP as he pushes for the podium in 2026.
The triple Australian Champion achieved a joint-career-best eighth place in the 2025 SGP series but is seeking to climb higher when he launches his World Championship campaign at the WWK Schwaiger & Partner FIM Speedway GP of Germany – Landshut on May 2.
Fricke finished just three points short of the top-seven automatic qualification places last year but is certain it wouldn’t take much to thrust him into medal contention.
He said: “I think I am definitely capable of it. It’s just a matter of getting things to match up at the right time – bikes, team and the feeling I have as a rider as well. Getting everything to work week in and week out is not as easy as it seems sometimes.
“I just need to put myself in that position where I am happy with how everything is going and then we can turn up to these meetings, ready to fight for top positions.
“I think, preparation wise, we are fine. It’s just the marginal gains – the small things – in terms of getting equipment working exactly the way you want and doing it earlier in the day. I think that comes a lot into it. We are working hard on that.
“My one-lap speed in qualifying is okay. But as the track develops and things change, I need to find an extra few percent later in the meeting here and there – we are not talking much.”
Fricke’s last Speedway GP win came at Warsaw’s PGE Narodowy in May 2022, but he narrowly missed out on a couple of finals in 2025 – notably falling short of the top two at round four in Manchester last year.
Despite tying with Brady Kurtz and Bartosz Zmarzlik on 12 points, their faster race times sent them through to the final, forcing Fricke to contest the last-chance qualifier, in which he finished last, leaving him with eight championship points, when a final appearance would have guaranteed him 14 or more.
“Last year, there were a couple of things like that, which maybe didn’t fall my way,” he said. “This affected the outcome. You can end the heats in equal second position on points, but you might fall back into the LCQs and have a fall in one round, or maybe a bad gate choice in another, and all of a sudden, you are back to eighth or ninth place. Whereas previously, you were in the top two or three. That’s a big swing in championship points. It can cost you a lot.
“A couple of things like that didn’t go my way, but maybe some other things did. It’s part and parcel of the game. You really need to put yourself in the best possible positions as often as you can and make your own luck.
“We will keep working hard. We are chipping away at it. We’re fighting as hard as we can all the time. That’s the main thing and being able to be proud of the effort you put in each year.”
