Three Aussies remain in speedway GP qualifying mix

The battle for three permanent spots in next year's Speedway World Championship continues this Saturday, when the two semi-finals of the qualification series are held in Sweden and Latvia.

Three Australians will be in action, with Davey Watt to compete in the Swedish round at Motala, while Rory Schlein and Chris Holder are locked in for the Latvian round at Daugavpils.

Holder, the 2008 Australian champion and runner-up in the past two junior world titles, insists he is ready to claim his place in the world championship for 2010.

The 22-year-old had been tipped to claim a spot in this year's championship, but now admits he did not have the infrastructure around him to compete on the world's biggest stage.

However, the form of 19-year-old sensation Emil Sayfutdinov in this year's world championship has proved that if a rider is good enough, he is old enough.

Sayfutdinov was Holder's conqueror in the last two junior titles, and is currently second in the 2009 world championship behind Australian star Jason Crump.

"Emil is going really well and has won a couple of grands prix, which is amazing for him," said Holder. "He has upset a few riders and he has been on the pace straight away.

"It's an indication of how fast you have to go, but I've raced all these boys before and it's not a new thing.

"I'll just make a few starts and put in a performance this weekend, and hopefully it will be good enough to get me through this round.

"Then hopefully I can get through the final because I'd rather get into the GP through the qualifiers like everyone else has to - I don't expect any free tickets.

"But if a wildcard came along, I wouldn't knock it back this year - that's for sure."

Holder heads for Daugavpils still feeling the effects of a broken collarbone he suffered in a motocross accident at the end of May.

But he is confident his injury will not affect him when he competes for a GP spot on Saturday.

"It's pretty sore at the minute - I've had a busy last few days, but I'll rest for a couple of days now," he said. "It hurts a bit when you have to turn the bike a little bit harder on the British circuits.

"But the tracks are a bit different abroad - they're bigger and a bit easier to ride, so I'll be fine."

The fields in both semi-finals have  a lot of depth, and feature a smattering of riders who were once world championship regulars, such as Luka Dryml, Antonio Lindback and Kenneth Bjerre in Sweden, and Piotr Protasiewicz, Jaroslaw Hampel and Bjarne Pedersen in Latvia.

Sweden's Fredrik Lindgren will also ride in Latvia, and he's currently running seventh in the world championship.

The top eight riders from each semi wil go through to the final at Coventry in September, where three riders will progress to world championship action in 2010.

Australia had five riders in the world championship early this century, but that has now been whittled back to two - Crump and Leigh Adams.

Crump is the runaway leader so far in 2009, but Adams is in danger of not meeting the cut-off for automatic qualification in 2010 unless he has a big second half of the year.