KING’S Lynn newcomer Ben Cook had an unfortunate start to his Australian Championship campaign in the first round at Gillman.

Cook found himself outside the semi-final qualifiers after scoring six points from his five qualifying rides, with two non-finishes proving costly.

In Heat 9, when he went up against the Holder brothers, he suffered mechanical trouble on the first bend and retired from the race.

Despite that, a win in Heat 20 would have been enough to qualify for the semi-finals, but disaster struck as Cook came to grief as he attempted to pass Mitchell Cluff, and he was excluded.

The meeting was won by Brady Kurtz ahead of Jack Holder, Chris Holder and Keynan Rew, as last year’s top two of Rohan Tungate and Max Fricke went out in the semi-finals.

The next round takes place at Mildura on Sunday and is available to be live streamed on BSN.