DATE OF BIRTH: 6 October 1985, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.
BRITISH CAREER: (2005) Isle of Wight; (2006) Isle of Wight, Poole; (2007) Poole; (2008) Somerset; (2010) Poole; (2011) Poole, Rye House, Newport.
CLUB HONOURS: Knock-Out Cup winner: 2008 [Somerset], 2010 [Poole], 2011 [Newport]; League Championship winner: 2011 [Poole].
RIDER LINKS: Son of Kevin Doyle (born: 15 November 1952, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia).
2011 STARTING AVERAGE: 5.24 (EL), 8.73 (PL).
ADDITIONAL INFO: Doyle was fined £300 and excluded from the rest of the meeting after throwing a punch at Reading’s Tom P. Madsen, following a back straight crash during heat six of a Premier Trophy match at Somerset on 11 April 2008.
Having agreed to rejoin Poole in 2009, Doyle was injured before turning a wheel for the Pirates, when he suffered a torn rotator cuff during round two of the Australian Championship at the Olympic Park, Mildura, on 7 January.
Having recuperated, he journeyed to the UK as scheduled only to aggravate the torn tendons at the top of his left arm in a heat fourteen crash during Newport’s re-opening meeting for the Prince of Wales Trophy on 15 March. He subsequently returned Down Under to recover fully and was replaced in the Poole side by Łukasz Jankowski.
The Aussie hoped to resume racing with Poole in 2010 but – having felt badly about letting the club down the previous year – expressed doubts over whether he would actually take his place in the Pirates’ line-up, although team boss Neil Middleditch was quick to assure the rider that there was a space open for him. And, in January, the Poole management confirmed that the Australian had, in fact, agreed a deal before the Christmas holidays to be the final piece in their team jigsaw for the new campaign.
Doyle sustained concussion after a crash during Poole’s home league encounter versus Wolverhampton on 18 August. He subsequently rode in Somerset’s 10-Year Anniversary meeting two days later, but had to withdraw from the event after taking a nasty-looking crash on the final turn of the opening lap in heat six. However, he was deemed fit to take his place in the Pirates’ next meeting at Wolverhampton on 23 August.
Worse was to come at the sharp end of the season, though; having ridden for Poole in the first leg of the Play-Off semi-final at Wolverhampton on 13 September, there was concern that the Aussie might miss the remainder of the season after dislocating a shoulder in a moto-cross accident. However, he recovered sufficiently to represent the Pirates’ in the first leg of the final at Coventry on 27 September, although he took another knock to the injury when he fell in the penultimate heat.
Poole eventually missed out on the League Championship after losing to the Bees on aggregate, but Doyle went on to secure his first maximum at Elite League level with an unbeaten display – 9+3 points from four starts – in the Pirates’ Knock-Out Cup semi-final win over Peterborough at Wimborne Road on 13 October.
They did at least gain some consolation for their high stakes loss in the league title decider when, on 27 October, they clinched an aggregate victory over Eastbourne to lift the Knock-Out Cup at their home raceway; it being Doyle’s first piece of silverware at top-flight level, having previously won the Premier League KOC with Somerset in 2008.
The Aussie’s end-of-term statistics made impressive reading since, from forty official meetings, he had notched 222 points for a real-time average of 6.25. But, on 4 December, he was made available for loan as he didn’t fit into Poole’s team plans for 2011.
However, following injuries to Darcy Ward on the eve of the campaign, ‘Doyley’ – having bought his own air ticket back to the UK in the hope of finding a berth – was recalled by the Pirates, with club boss Matt Ford believing he could punch well above his weight.
Then, on 19 March, he was sensationally unveiled by Rye House promoter Len Silver as a temporary replacement for the injured Steve Boxall during the pre-meeting parade for the Rockets’ home meeting against Ipswich in the Anglia Cup. Although he rode in that particular match as a guest for the absent Chris Neath – top-scoring with 13+1 points – Doyle subsequently covered for Boxall once the league campaign got underway.
Following that, on 21 March, Poole confirmed that the Aussie would share a ‘doubling-up’ position alongside Gary Havelock with them – the 1992 World Champion being on standby in the event that Doyle had any fixture clashes due to his commitments with Rye House.
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 Darcy Ward re-declared in the 1-7.
The Aussie roared to a career-best top-flight performance, as he helped Poole to an away win at newcomers Birmingham in their first Elite League match of the season on 28 March. In front of the Sky Sports cameras, Doyle netted 12+1 points from five rides in the Pirates’ 48-42 win and also shared in the match-clinching 5-1 with star reserve Dennis Andersson in the penultimate heat.
Doyle was ruled out of Poole’s Elite League encounter with Swindon at Wimborne Road on 20 April, having suffered an aggravation to his shoulder and failed a fitness test on the morning of the clash. This was because the rider had a weakness in the shoulder and it was prone to ‘pop out’ and cause him some discomfort. Former World Champion and Pirates’ fellow ‘doubling-up’ rider Gary Havelock replaced the Aussie in the side, but it was hoped that Doyle would be back for club’s Easter programme.
Doyle quickly returned to action, though, continuing his free-scoring exploits for both Rye House and Poole. That didn’t last long, though, as he was injured in the Rockets’ home league encounter versus Ipswich on 2 May. In heat thirteen of the match, the Aussie fell on the fourth bend when chasing Witches’ Chris Schramm for third place and suffered a badly dislocated shoulder.
With Doyle in extreme discomfort, the paramedic recommended immediate transport to hospital in the ambulance. Given that the time had passed 10.00 p.m. and there would be an indeterminate delay until a replacement vehicle would arrive, the referee had little alternative but to call a halt to the proceedings although the result did stand as a home win.
Remarkably, the Australian returned to action with Poole just three days later and, showing no ill effects, he raced to a tally of 9+1 points from four rides as the Pirates comfortably defeated Lakeside 58-36 in an Elite League fixture.
Doyle’s stint with Rye House came to an end in mid-May, when Steve Boxall was deemed fit to return to action. He had done a grand job for the Rockets, piling up well over 100 points to average around 8.5 points per match. He soon got fixed-up elsewhere, though, since Newport announced just a few short days later that they had him in place of Kim Nilsson.
DOYLE, Jason Kevin
