BRADY RESERVE AT ETIHAD

BRADY KURTZ will line-up alongside three former Poole captains when he takes his place at the Etihad Stadium, Melbourne on Saturday.

Kurtz has been named as one of the meeting reserves for the final round of the 2017 World Championship and joins former Poole skippers Chris Holder, Dave Watt and Maciej Janowski.

Watt who announced his retirement from  racing earlier this season and returned to his native Australia has been offered a swan-song opportunity as a replacement for the injured Niels-Kristian Iversen. The Dane had targetted the Melbourne GP for a return from a shoulder injury that has seen him side-lined since mid-August.

The final round of the 2017 GP series has Aussie Jason Doyle needing just eight points to secure the world title, with Patryk Dudek the only rider standing in his way. Doyle heads the standings on 142 points, 14 points more than second-placed Dudek. Battling for a rostrum finish is Pirate favourite Maciej Janowski who heads for Melbourne two points shy of former world champion Tai Woffinden who presently occupies third place.

2016 Melbourne winner Chris Holder is presently in 10th place, 15 points shy of Matej Zagar who holds the final automatic qualifying place for the 2018 series.

QBE INSURANCE AUSTRALIAN SGP LINE-UP (in ranking order with rider numbers): 25 Peter Kildemand (substitute for 45 Greg Hancock), 108 Tai Woffinden, 95 Bartosz Zmarzlik, 23 Chris Holder, 69 Jason Doyle, 777 Piotr Pawlicki, 85 Antonio Lindback, 18 Dave Watt (substitute for 88 Niels-Kristian Iversen), 55 Matej Zagar, 71 Maciej Janowski, 17 Justin Sedgmen (substitute for 66 Fredrik Lindgren), 84 Martin Smolinski (substitute for 12 Nicki Pedersen), 692 Patryk Dudek, 54 Martin Vaculik, 89 Emil Sayfutdinov, 16 Sam Masters, 19 Brady Kurtz, Rohan Tungate.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Jason Doyle 142, 2 Patryk Dudek 128, 3 Tai Woffinden 115, 4 Maciej Janowski 113, 5 Emil Sayfutdinov 109, 6 Bartosz Zmarzlik 108, 7 Fredrik Lindgren 107, 8 Matej Zagar 97, 9 Martin Vaculik 90, 10 Chris Holder 82, 11 Piotr Pawlicki 79, 12 Antonio Lindback 73, 13 Peter Kildemand 54, 14 Greg Hancock 45, 15 Niels-Kristian Iverson 44, 16 Vaclav Milik 31, 17 Martin Smolinski 19, 18 Max Fricke 11, 19 Pawel Przedpelski 10, 20 Nicki Pedersen 8, 21 Michael Jepsen Jensen 8, 22 Maksims Bogdanovs 8, 23 Kenneth Bjerre 7, 24 Krzysztof Kasprzak 6, 25 Kai Huckenbeck 4, 26 Jacob Thorssell 4, 27 Przemyslaw Pawlicki 3, 28 Craig Cook 2, 29 Linus Sundstrom 2, 30 Kim Nilsson 2, 31 Josh Bates 2, 32 Nick Skorja 1.