Popular young Dane Jonas Knudsen returns to the Berwick FTS Bandits, powered by Keenwood Karpets, line-up at Scunthorpe on Friday (7.30pm) after finally receiving his delayed work visa.
The former World 250CC champions has been sidelined since July 23 due to United Kingdom Visa and Immigration delays in processing his work application.Having initially been told that it could take up to eight weeks to get a full visa the SGP2 competitor put together an impressive run of scores for the Bandits using a 28-day Permitted Paid Engagement Visa, collecting the June and July Bandits Supporters’ Club Rider of the Month awards along the way.
But after that ran out the club had to enlist the help of the town’s MP Anne-Marie Trevelyan as the visa saga dragged on.
Knudsen (pictured by Keith Hamblin and courtesy of Berwick Bandits) missed four meetings during that spell – and the opportunity to represent the club at the Championship Pairs – but on Thursday lunchtime the Berwick club got the news they had been waiting for.
“Anne-Marie has spent a lot of time trying to get Jonas’s application out of the logjam and her office were able to tell us that it had finally been approved on Thursday.
“We cannot thank our MP and her office enough for the time and effort they put in on our behalf and it would be an understatement to say that we are relieved that it is over.
“Jonas was with us in the stands at the British Grand Prix on Saturday night and of course he rode in the SGP2 on Sunday.
“He has been as frustrated as us at not being able to race in Britain after making an impressive start to his career over here and is keen to make the most of the remaining weeks of the season.”
Jonas was due to fly into England tonight to prepare for the trip to Scunthorpe where he will partner Luke Crang at reserve.
National Development League Bullets’ heat leader Luke, who has acted as number eight on a number of occasions and had a spell with Edinburgh in the Championship last season, makes his full Bandits’ debut in place of the injured Nathan Stoneman who broke a shoulder blade in their last fixture, against Glasgow.
Scunthorpe, currently four points ahead of Berwick in the Championship table, have an impressive record around the Eddie Wright Raceway this season, their only defeat coming against Plymouth in April.
They still have an outside mathematical chance of taking the sixth and final play-off place as their remaining three meetings are home and away against the Bandits and at home to the side currently in the hotseat, Redcar.
A livestream of the meeting is available to buy from tv.scunthorpe-speedway.com
Scorpions: Ryan Douglas, Simon Lambert, James Wright, Jake Allen, Tero Aarnio, Adam Roynon, Anders Rowe
Bandits: Chris Harris, Theo Pijper, Jye Etheridge, Leon Flint, Ricky Wells, Jonas Knudsen, Luke Crang
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