Sam Blocked

NEWS Thursday 6th June 2019, 12:42pm

by Toby Lerone

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Our Scottish Open plans have suffered a set back with news that Sam Masters has been refused permission to ride by the BSPA directors (formerly known as the management committee) due to visa restrictions.

Co-promoter, John Campbell, takes up the story. "We received notification of a problem at the end of last week but having presented further evidence to the BSPA earlier this week I was confident that we would be granted permission. However, I have today received formal notification denying us the right to include Sam in our meeting."

"The problem is all to do with what tracks Sam is allowed to ride on in the UK. We believed that as Sam had ridden on Championship tracks already this season, Leicester and Redcar, and riders holding visas to ride on Championship tracks had ridden on Premiership tracks, Justin Sedgmen and Broc Nicol at Belle Vue, that all would be well for us. I simply can't see the difference between what we were trying to do and what has happened already this year. Obviously there needs to be some clarity on this matter so that others are not caught out. There needs to be a level playing field, which we don't have at the moment."

Campbell concluded," We still have the most competitive field for the Open that we have had for many years and although one of the favourites may be missing on the track, Sam will still be at Armadale tomorrow to say hello."

Victor Palovaara has found that he will require to spend Friday building his machinery to be ready for his season debut at Leicester on Saturday. Therefore we are grateful that Ben Barker will be making the long journey to add his entertaining presence to the event. In a further change Josh MacDonald has withdrawn following a crash at Birmingham on Wednesday night and will be replaced by William Lawson.

We will have a full run down on the field later.