DATE OF BIRTH: 24 September 1987, Appin, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
BRITISH CAREER: (2006-07) Isle of Wight; (2008-11) Poole.
MAJOR HONOURS: Australian Under-21 Champion: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008; New South Wales State Champion: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2011; Western Australia State Champion: 2008; Australian Champion: 2008, 2010, 2011; New South Wales Under-21 State Champion: 2009.
CLUB HONOURS: Four-Team Championship winner: 2007 [Isle of Wight]; Pairs Championship winner: 2007 [Isle of Wight], 2009 [Poole], 2011 [Poole]; League Championship winner: 2008, 2011 [both Poole]; Knock-Out Cup winner: 2010, 2011 [both Poole].
GRAND PRIX HIGHLIGHTS: British GP Champion: 2010; Swedish GP Champion: 2011.
RIDER LINKS: Son of Mick Holder. Nephew of Matt Holder. Brother of James Holder (born: 7 May 1986, Appin, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia).
2011 STARTING AVERAGE: 8.39 (EL).
ADDITIONAL INFO: The Australian sensation – who rides with pace, aggression and flair – enjoyed a fabulous 2008 domestic campaign with Poole and scooped league titles in Britain, Sweden and Poland.
Holder finished second – behind Russian sensation Emil Sayfutdinov – in the World Under-21 Championship for two successive seasons (in 2007 and 2008) and was widely tipped for a very bright future at the sharp end of the sport.
Indeed, he has achieved plenty in his short career, including representing his country in international competition and collecting an individual victory in the 2008 Australian Championship. Holder also shares a fierce rivalry with Troy Batchelor and the two talented compatriots are renowned for their spirited on-track duels.
In May 2009, the Sydney-born rider bizarrely sustained a broken collarbone in a moto-cross accident, meaning an unexpected spell on the sidelines. After his return from injury, Holder combined with Hans Andersen to win the Elite League Pairs Championship for Poole at Eastbourne’s Arlington Stadium on 8 August – the triumph adding to his previous success at PL level with Jason Bunyan for the Isle of Wight in 2007.
As the Pirates entered the last phase of the campaign, the Aussie was happy to sit out some end-of-season challenge matches, as the promotion looked at different riders with a view to the following term. Holder also confirmed that he fully intended to be back at Wimborne Road in 2010 and, in November, Poole boss Matt Ford confirmed that the Aussie would indeed return for his third successive term.
Then, in the New Year, the New South Wales star won his second Australian Championship after a dramatic series decider at Newcastle on 9 January. The Poole ace started the third and final round 4 points adrift of Troy Batchelor, who had won the previous two events at Gillman and Mildura.
However, the Peterborough acquisition failed to reach the final, allowing Holder to overturn the deficit and take the Championship by a single point overall, with Darcy Ward and Rory Schlein completing the top four.
A broken arm was feared when Holder fell in heat fourteen of the Toruń Grand Prix in Poland on 19 June and was subsequently clipped by the closely following Greg Hancock. However, he was fortunate to escape without any broken bones, although he did suffer some muscle damage that necessitated a short spell on the sidelines.
Having recovered quickly, he went on to celebrate his maiden Grand Prix victory in front of a record-breaking 44,150 crowd at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on 10 July. The Aussie ended the recent British GP dominance of compatriot Jason Crump, with the reigning World Champion having to settle for second place after winning in South Wales for the previous two years.
Holder sustained a wrist injury in Poole’s home league match versus Wolverhampton on 18 August, but quickly recuperated to post a real-time average in excess of 8.5 points per match as the Pirates completely dominated the domestic programme to comfortably head the Elite League table.
However, they missed out on the Championship after losing to Coventry in the Play-Off final. They did at least gain some consolation at Wimborne Road on 27 October, though, when they clinched an aggregate victory over Eastbourne to lift the Knock-Out Cup.
The end-of-term statistical run-down gave Holder a final average of 8.58 for the Pirates, the rider having attained 387 points from forty-one official appearances. His best performance of the season occurred in a league match against Swindon at Wimborne Road on 11 August, when he reeled off a faultless 15-point maximum.
On 11 December, Holder regained the New South Wales State Championship at Kurri Kurri, defeating Darcy Ward, Richard Sweetman and Sam Masters in the final. And, four days later, Poole boss Matt Ford confirmed that both Holder and his Australian compatriot, Ward, would be remaining with the club in 2011.
Indeed, the duo had forged a formidable on-track partnership in 2010 that enabled the Pirates to soar to the top of the Sky Sports Elite League, finishing 17 points clear of their closest rivals. In addition, the two were good buddies off-track and helped to form a camaraderie that was infectious amongst the side.
Holder was involved in a nasty spill with Kozza Smith in heat fifteen of the second round in the Australian Championship at Gillman, Adelaide, on 22 January. He sustained hefty knocks to his left shoulder, neck and right wrist but, despite that, he rode on through the pain barrier to take victory and continued his march to a third national title. He bravely wrapped up the Championship at Mildura on 29 January, but then faced a race to be fit for the start of the Elite League campaign with Poole.
Poole clinched the first piece of top-flight silverware for 2011 when, on 27 April, the Australian duo of Holder and Darcy Ward romped to victory in the Elite League Pairs Championship at King’s Lynn. The Pirates defeated the Belle Vue pairing of Chris Harris and Rory Schlein in the final after getting the better of Wolverhampton in the second semi-final on a night of thrilling racing at the Norfolk Arena.
On 14 May, Holder was delighted to bounce back from being crushed on count-back in the season’s opening Grand Prix a fortnight earlier at Leszno, Poland, by winning a rain-soaked Swedish SGP in Gothenburg. The meeting was abandoned after sixteen races as heavy rain, which had lashed the Ullevi Stadium all evening, rendered track conditions and visibility too poor to continue.
Holder was top of the score-chart with 10 points when the meeting was stopped and was level with Greg Hancock. Like the American, the Sydneysider had two heat wins and two second-places to his name. But the Poole, Toruń and Lejonen hero came out on top as he had pipped the Californian to the chequered flag in a fiercely-contested heat eleven.
With Holder and Darcy Ward forming a dynamic spearhead, the Pirates went to to take victory in the Elite League Play-Offs – defeating Eastbourne in the final – and the Dorset side completed a clean sweep of the top-flight trophies on 20 October, when they sealed an aggregate success over Belle Vue to retain the Knock-Out Cup.
FIM Speedway Grand Prix Record: Grand Prix ridden: 18 – 42nd on SGP all-time list Grand Prix points: 166 – 33rd on SGP all-time list Grand Prix races: 99 – 38th on SGP all-time list Grand Prix race wins: 22 – 35th on SGP all-time list Grand Prix wins: 2 – 15th on SGP all-time list Grand Prix finals: 3 – 29th on SGP all-time list
FIM Speedway World Cup Record: SWC tournaments: 5 Events: 13 – 4th on Australia’s list; 23rd on SWC all-time list Points: 122 – 4th on Australia’s list; 23rd on SWC all-time list Finals: 4 Gold medals: 0
HOLDER, Christopher (Chris) Robert
