Christian Henry has been selected by Motorcycling Australia for the national chmapionship final to be held at Murray Bridge's 'Riverview Speedway' on February 3rd in South Australia.
The field is madeup of each State Champion (provided they bother to show) plus others seeded through to the final. Chrsitian finished third in the Queensland Solo Champinship behind Jason Crump and the ineligable 'guest' Simon Stead. Crump has declined to take his place in the final so Chriistian along with Dave Watt have been selected to represent Queensland.
Ben Shield faced a tougher route to qualification via the New South Wales State Championship. His fifth place was insufficient to take one of New South Wales' four places. These went to Todd Wiltshire, Mick Poole, Craig Watson, and Adam Shields.
Ben appears to have been selected as reserve for the event alongside local rider Ford Keane. This was rather controversial since Ben finished behind Dean Wiseman in the New South Wales final. Many assumed that Wiseman would take the first reseve place.
The full line-up is listed below:
South Australia: Shane Parker, Brett Woodifield, Nigel Sadler and Rusty Harrison.
Victoria: Leigh Adams, Jason Lyons, Mark Lemon, and Travis McGowan.
Western Australia: Steve Johnston and Lee Redman.
Queensland: Dave Watt and Christian Henry.
New South Wales: Todd Wiltshire, Mick Poole, Craig Watson, and Adam Shields.
Reserves: Ben Shields (New South Wales) and Ford Keane (South Australia).
Christian Henry has been in action in the Harley Tri Nation series. This is run in conjunction with the Jack Daniels Australian Longtrack Masters. Top American flat track racer Jay Springsteen is comepeting in this series. Christian won the first round at Bankstown Showground, Sydney after Springsteen stopped when well ahead allowing Christian to lead Jack Stevens home. In the second round at Redcliffe Paceway in Brisbane, Springsteen held off Stevens with Christian third making up ground after a poor start.