DATE OF BIRTH: 4 May 1992, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
BRITISH CAREER: (2008) Boston; (2009) King’s Lynn; (2010-11) Poole.
MAJOR HONOURS: Queensland Under-21 State Champion: 2009; Australian Under-21 Champion: 2009, 2010, 2011; World Under-21 Champion: 2009, 2010; New South Wales State Champion: 2010.
CLUB HONOURS: League Championship winner: 2009 [King’s Lynn], 2011 [Poole]; Premier Trophy winner: 2009 [King’s Lynn]; Knock-Out Cup winner: 2009 [King’s Lynn], 2010 [Poole], 2011 [Poole]; Pairs Championship winner: 2011 [Poole].
2011 STARTING AVERAGE: 6.63 (EL).
ADDITIONAL INFO: Having ridden spectacularly for Boston at Conference-level during the second-half of the 2008 campaign, the teenage sensation started the 2009 season at reserve for King’s Lynn in British speedway’s middle sphere. However, he soon became the talk of the sport after a string of magnificent displays, which led to him moving up to the side’s No. 1 slot in early June.
His blistering form continued and saw him shoot to pole position in the overall Premier League averages, before injury struck at Edinburgh on 10 July. The Aussie was leading heat five, but lost control on the pits bend and crashed into the safety fence, chipping a bone at the bottom of an ankle.
The injury necessitated a spell on the sidelines and the use of guests in his place; the youngster quickly recovered, though, returning to the Stars’ line-up on 2 August to continue his high-scoring exploits.
Ward’s efforts helped propel King’s Lynn to a League Championship and Premier Trophy double, whilst individually the talented Aussie finished a gallant runner-up to home representative Ricky Ashworth in the Premier League Riders’ Championship at Sheffield on 27 September.
Further glory came his way on 3 October, though, when he annexed the World Under-21 Championship with a typically breathtaking display at Goričan, Croatia.
Ward was to retain top spot in the Premier League averages, finishing up with a real-time figure of close on 10 points per match. He did, however, sustain a back injury whilst representing Australia against Great Britain in an Under-25 Test match at Ipswich on 15 October.
That necessitated a trip to Poland, where he received specialist attention from his Extra League club’s physiotherapist at Toruń, before returning to the UK for more treatment with a specialist in London.
He subsequently appeared in the first leg of the Knock-Out Cup final at Edinburgh on 23 October, but missed the return fixture five days later when the Stars secured an aggregate victory. That capped a superb year for the club, as they collected their third piece of major silverware.
Completing a swift rise through the three tiers of British speedway, it was revealed in mid-November that Ward had completed an undisclosed big money transfer from King’s Lynn to Poole for the 2010 season. Indeed, his transfer fee was a club record and exceeded the £28,000 that the Pirates had shelled out for Jason Crump at the tail end of 2006.
In December, Ward won the highly coveted Premier League Rider of the Year award at the annual Speedway Riders’ Association ceremony. The following month, he finished third in the Australian Championship and, on 16 January at Mildura, secured his second successive Aussie Under-21 crown.
Despite being burdened with a huge transfer price tag, the Queenslander went on to take the move to the highest UK echelon in his stride, posting an average of just under 8 points a match as the Pirates dominated the domestic campaign to occupy first place in the final league standings. Along the way, he registered his maiden paid maximum at top-flight level on 21 July, when he tallied 14+1 points against Belle Vue in a Knock-Out Cup tie at Wimborne Road.
On 2 October, the Australian sensation became only the second rider in history to retain the World Under-21 Championship at Pardubice, Czech Republic. The 18-year-old defeated Pole Maciej Janowski and Latvian star Maks Bogdanovs in a run-off for the gold medal. This was after the trio tied on 30 championship points in the new three-round series.
Although Poole eventually missed out on the League Championship after losing to Coventry in the Play-Off final, they did at least gain some consolation at Wimborne Road on 27 October, when they clinched an aggregate victory over Eastbourne to lift the Knock-Out Cup; it being Ward’s initial piece of silverware in top-flight British racing, having previously won three trophies at Premier League level with King’s Lynn.
Ward’s final real-time average for the season was 7.93; the impressive figure being derived courtesy of 301 points from forty official appearances. And, on 3 December, he was named FIM Rookie of the Year at a gala award ceremony in Portugal. The Aussie received his award having retained his World Under-21 Championship title.
In what was a double celebration for speedway, World Champion Tomasz Gollob won the Personality of the Year award, with the duo beating off strong competition from several motorcycle disciplines, including MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, MAXXIS FIM E3 Enduro World Champion David Knight and FIM MX1 Motocross World Champion Toni Cairoli.
On 15 December, Poole boss Matt Ford confirmed that both Ward and his Australian compatriot, Chris Holder, would be remaining with the club in 2011. The duo 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.
Ward won his third Australian Under-21 Championship on the bounce with an unbeaten performance at North Brisbane on 8 January, emulating Chris Holder and Leigh Adams in claiming a straight hat-trick of titles.
Both his peers had a career record of four titles apiece, Holder having won consecutive titles between 2005 and 2008, whilst Adams’ quartet began in 1988 and he then won three more in the years 1990 to 1992. Ward was relatively unchallenged as he strung five winning rides together to top the qualifying heats, before he headed home Richard Sweetman, Josh Grajczonek and Micky Dyer in the final.
On 17 March, Poole Speedway reported that Ward had ruled himself out of the early stages of the 2011 campaign after a moto-cross accident near Salisbury the previous day had left him with a broken wrist and shoulder. The rider, together with fellow Australians Chris Holder and Davey Watt, had been taking part in some pre-season training when the accident occurred. Jason Doyle was subsequently recalled to the Pirates’ line-up to replace his compatriot.
Then, on 26 March, Poole announced that they had re-declared their starting line-up as a result of on-going uncertainties with the situation regarding the availability of Polish recruit Rafał Dobrucki, who had become embroiled in a row over the new silencers.
The silencers had courted controversy amongst a number of riders and leading Polish figures had vetoed their use on the grounds of considered risks to rider safety. The Polish authority, PZM, had announced that the ‘old’ silencers would be used in any meetings that fell under their jurisdiction.
They had further stated that they wouldn’t sanction start permissions for any of their riders – other than the four riders who had their permissions granted by 17 March – to appear outside of Poland. Dobrucki was one of those four, along with Tomasz Piszcz [Belle Vue], Dawid Lampart [Eastbourne] and Krzystof Kasprzak [Birmingham].
But the rider himself had been one of the leading figures in persuading the PZM to back the riders’ position, which had subsequently left him facing the dilemma of riding for the Pirates, thereby contradicting his belief that the silencers were unsafe, or by remaining firm to the cause.
Matt Ford explained that the situation with Dobrucki had effectively become ‘untenable’ and, whilst the rider didn’t want to let the Pirates down, he did have his views on the use of the silencers, which conflicted with those of the BSPA.
As a result, the Pirates’ promoter felt unable to let the matter drift on any further and made the decision to move ahead without him. The club restructured the side in such a way that Jason Doyle was effectively the Pole’s replacement, with Ward re-declared in the 1-7.
The Aussie had been having oxygen chamber therapy on his shoulder and had responded well, but although he was still thought to be about a fortnight away from a return to the saddle, by making the change it meant he would be able to slot straight back into the side as soon as he was given the go-ahead. In the meantime, Poole operated the rider replacement facility for him, beginning with their first league match of the campaign at Birmingham on 28 March.
Just 30 days after sustaining his injuries, Ward returned to action in the Emil Kramer Memorial meeting at Somerset on 15 April, when he included a hat-trick of race wins in a 13-point tally, before being beaten into second place by former Poole team-mate Bjarne Pedersen in the grand final.
Shortly after, the Pirates clinched the first piece of top-flight silverware for 2011 when, on 27 April, the Australian duo of Ward and Chris Holder romped to victory in the Elite League Pairs Championship at King’s Lynn. The Poole pairing defeated Belle Vue’s 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.
Ward was to show blistering form in the Elite League and continued in that vein when he lived up to his billing as pre-meeting favourite by winning the first round of the World Under-21 Final at Poole on 24 July.
The Australian star, who was going for a third successive overall title, won a three-man run-off against Maciej Janowski and Dennis Andersson. However, the following evening, he sustained a groin injury and faced a spell on the sidelines after a crash in the Pirates’ televised league match at Coventry. He wasn’t out of action for long, though, as Ward handed Poole a massive boost on 1 August by declaring himself fit to return from injury ahead of schedule.
With Ward and Chris Holder 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: Ward was named as the wildcard for the 2011 FIM Torun Speedway Grand Prix of Poland and was scheduled to make his SGP debut at the Marian Rose Motorarena on Saturday 27 August.
FIM Speedway World Cup Record: SWC tournaments: 2 Events: 5 – 10th on Australia’s list; 66th on SWC all-time list Points: 40 – 9th on Australia’s list; 52nd on SWC all-time list Finals: 1 Gold medals: 0
WARD, Darcy Stephen
