Jed Metcher Finally Receives Boarding Call
PR Racing’s Jed Metcher has finally received his working sportsman visa which will allow him to re-enter the UK and finally kick off his first ever season in the British Superbike Championship.
2015 started in very exciting fashion for Metcher, firstly completing in the 22nd AMCN International Island Classic where he tasted Race Victory in leg 4 of the International Challenge aboard the Scott Owen Racing Developments Katana.
Less than a month later Jed scored world championship points in his first ever appearance in the Superbike World Championship at the high speed Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit. Metcher and his Melbourne based Race Center team battled a small budget, some fuel pump gremlins and an unfortunate stone in the radiator to still put on a decent showing leaving Jed fit, in form and full of motivation to begin his BSB Assault.
Just two days after his WSBK wildcard Jed headed to the UK and then Spain to begin pre-season testing with PR Racing Kawasaki. After the first pre-season test at the Cartagena circuit in Spain Jed was brought back to earth, or should we say Australia! It was discovered he had the wrong type of visa to compete as a sportsperson in the UK and despite attempts by Jed and PR Racing to have the issue resolved from the UK, Jed was forced to return to Australia in order to re-apply for the correct visa.
The process has taken a couple of months seeing Jed and the team miss the opening three rounds of the BSB season, and losing valuable bike time in the process. The Visa debacle has also been an expensive one, with unplanned flights and visa applications. Rather than the dwell on issues beyond his control Jed has remained focused on his fitness and kept up his skills up by riding Supermotard and Dirt track with his Pal’s Adrian Nestorovic and Ben White. The Race Center team unfortunately did not have the budget or resources to put Jed back on a Superbike bike while he remained in Australia.
The great news is that Jed now has the correct visa in his hands and is planning to fly out to the UK next week to resume testing with PR Racing before Round 4 of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship to be held at Snetterton on June 19-21. It will have been almost five months between races for the Victorian by the time Snetterton comes around, but he will give it his all when he makes that return.
