Chris Holder was unable to wet the baby’s head in style in New Zealand.

The Pirates spearhead racked up just four points in Auckland’s first ever Grand Prix round – just hours after learning that girlfriend Sealy had given birth to the couple’s son Max back in Bournemouth.

Holder’s solitary heat win came in race eight against Emil Sayfutdinov, Peter Ljung and Jason Bunyan, while the Aussie claimed an uncontested point in heat nine after Dane Kenneth Bjerre had packed up at the start.

The 24-year-old said: “I was struggling to find the set-up out here. You needed plenty of speed and while I managed to pick up a win in my second race, I still felt my bikes weren’t strong enough.”

World champion Greg Hancock started the defence of his title with the Grand Prix victory, seeing off a host of experienced heads in the final.

Jarek Hampel was second, with Dane Nicki Pedersen third and Aussie Jason Crump fourth.

Antonio Lindback and Tomasz Gollob also made solid starts to their world championship campaigns by reaching the semi-finals.

Pirates legend Bjarne Pedersen, meanwhile, narrowly missed out on the semi-finals with seven points on his return to the world championship series.

Full result: 1 Greg Hancock 22 points, 2 Jaroslaw Hampel 18, 3 Tomasz Gollob 15, 4 Nicki Pedersen 13, 5 Antonio Lindback 13, 6 Jason Crump 12, 7 Emil Sayfutdinov 8, 8 Freddie Lindgren 8, 9 Bjarne Pedersen 7, 10 Hans Andersen 6, 11 Chris Harris 5, 12 Andreas Jonsson 4, 13 Kenneth Bjerre 4, 14 Chris Holder 4, 15 Peter Ljung 4, 16 Jason Bunyan 1.