PIRATES new boy Kyle Newman paid tribute to Chris Holder for riding through the pain barrier and clinching a third Australian Championship title.

Holder shrugged off injuries to his shoulder, neck and arm to finish tenth in the final round at Mildura despite struggling to amass seven points from five rides.

That brave performance, in which Holder twice fell while leading races, after shedding a chain and hitting a rut, was enough to see Poole’s spearhead collect nine championship points.

It meant he finished top overall with 69, ahead of Mildura winner Darcy Ward, who defeated his Castle Cover Pirates team-mate Davey Watt in a run-off for second overall after they’d tied on 63.

Newman, just confirmed as a Poole squad member, was the surprise packet in the fourth round at Mildura.

He produced an eye-catching display, grabbing nine points in the qualifiers and then sweeping past Justin Segdmen on the last bend to claim B final victory.

The ambitious Poole-born teenager had to settle for fourth in the A final after being controversially excluded for falling, with Ward taking the chequered flag in front of runner-up Cameron Woodward and Rory Schlein.

Newman said: “Chris (who’d sustained his injuries in a horror spill at Gillman in the second round) was brilliant.

“He really dug deep and fair play to him for riding through the pain barrier.

“Congratulations to him on winning the title. He had three brilliant round wins but was just in sheer pain in Mildura.

“He had a lot of bad luck. He hit a rut going into turns three and four, and when you don’t have enough strength in your shoulder and arms you can’t hold up the bike properly.

“But he’s a fully deserving champion and managed to get the points needed to clinch the title.”

Newman, who finished second behind Holder in heat 15, added: “I tried to push Chris as hard as I could.

“I even caught up with him at one stage, but then he pulled away.

“Davey had an off-night and I’ve got to the stage where I don’t even look at the riders I race against any more, I just look at their helmets.

“So it wasn’t until after I’d won heat 11 and my pits crew told me I’d just beaten Cam Woodward and Davey that I thought ‘brilliant’.

“It was one of my best meetings ever and I could even have finished on the podium because I thought Rory took my front wheel away down the home straight in the A final.

“Even though it wasn’t intentional, it definitely wasn’t my fault.

“When Leigh Adams says you were unlucky to be excluded, coming from a rider of his calibre who knows this track so well, you have to take that as a compliment.”

The overall top four, Holder, Ward, Watt and Schlein, clinched places in the 2012 Grand Prix qualifiers.

If Holder, already a World Championship regular, decides to sit out the qualifiers, Woodward can take his place.

Details, Australian Championship, fourth round, Mildura, qualifying: Ward 14, Schlein 12, Woodward 10, Smith 10, Proctor 10, J Sedgmen 9, Newman 9, Gathercole 8, Sweetman 8, Watt 7, Holder 7, Masters 7, Medson 3, Bugeja 2, Gates 1, Davey 0. Res: R Sedgmen 2. B final: (re-run) Newman, J Sedgmen, Proctor, Smith (fell exc). A final: (re-run) Ward, Woodward, Schlein, Newman (fell, excluded).

Final championship standings: Holder 70, Ward 63, Watt 63 (after-run-off), Schlein 62, Woodward 55, Gathercole 53, Smith 50, J Sedgmen 51, Proctor 50, Masters 40, , Sweetman 37, Newman 31, Doyle 29, Poole 17, Bugeja 14, Davey 13, Medson 6, Gates 3, Barnfield 2, R Sedgmen 2.