KEEN KERR READY FOR REDCAR ENCOUNTER AS FORD SEES RED

Poole will complete their league visits to northern clubs on Friday night (25th July) when they travel to Redcar to confront the Bears, who remain unbeaten on home soil this season.

The trip holds no fears for Lewi Kerr who admitted "Redcar is one of my favourite tracks and I am looking forward to going there on Friday". The Wessex Marine Pirates will be in desperate need that Kerr demonstrates his liking for the circuit as they will head there without the services of Anders Rowe, a matter that has infuriated Poole promoter Dan Ford.

"I am far from happy with the situation that has confronted us. Anders has been forced to miss our meeting at Redcar as his Polish club, Ostrow, have ordered him to be available for their re-arranged fixture at Lodz and we have been told that we need to release him. This, in my view, contravenes the agreement our governing body has with the Polish Federation and it is extremely frustrating. Under the agreement, this clash of dates should have fallen in our favour, as he is a British rider and it is not his club's regular race night. I am so annoyed that we have not had the support from our association in this matter. In no way do I blame Anders."

"He finds himself between a rock and a hard place, I know he feels bad about having to miss our trip to Redcar but I feel that we owe it to British fans for the authorities to face up to these unacceptable pressures applied by Polish clubs."

Rowe guested for Redcar earlier in the season and dropped just one point from four rides that night, so the Pirates, who will operate rider replacement for him, are sure to miss his contribution.

Ford continued "without Anders, the rest of the side are going to have to be at their very best. Charles Wright and Danny King, in particular, are points machines around the Ecco Arena but it is also a track where Richard (Lawson) has generally scored very well, whilst I note that Will Cairns has an excellent record, albeit at National league level, around there in his past two visits."

Redcar will be without Jake Mulford who is on European U24 team duty for GB and also Erik Riss who has been forced to take a step back from racing following a recurrence of the illness that saw him miss a great deal of the 2023 campaign. The Bears have turned to Workington for guests to cover with Jacob Hook and Antti Vuolas taking the bookings.

Redcar (TM Gavin Parr) 1 Charles Wright (Capt) 2 Jacob Hook (Guest) 3 Jason Edwards 4 Antti Vuolas (Guest) 5 Danny King 6 Jody Scott 7 Ace Pijper

Poole (TM Gary Havelock) 1 Richard Lawson 2 Tobias Thomsen 3 Lewis Kerr 4 Zach Cook (Capt) 5 Rider Replacement 6 Paul Starke 7 William Cairns