FORMER Australian Champion Sam Masters has joined Leicester for the 2024 Sports Insure Premiership campaign.
Masters, 32, is an established track specialist at the Pidcock Motorcycles Arena, Beaumont Park, where he has often put in high-scoring displays.
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He makes the switch across the Midlands after being with Wolverhampton in the top-flight ever since 2016, that spell only being broken by the cancelled season due to Covid in 2020.
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But prior to that, he did have a spell with the Lions as a doubling-up rider in 2015 and impressed over ten appearances in the old Elite League.
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Masters became available for a move due to the sad closure of Wolverhampton\u2019s Monmore Green stadium to speedway, and all at Leicester continue to wish our neighbours well as they seek to secure an alternative venue.
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Having ended the season with a 7.13 average \u2013 which has actually dropped due mainly to a number of niggling injuries in the last couple of years \u2013 Masters should be capable of providing further top-end power for the Watling JCB Lions alongside No.1 Max Fricke.
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Manager Stewart Dickson said: \u201cI\u2019ve known Sam for a long time. He was a big target when I was at Glasgow, and I lost out to Somerset when he first came over, and then he was at Edinburgh for a lot of years so we know each other very well.<\/em> \u201cWe\u2019ve never actually been team manager and rider before apart from some guest bookings, but we\u2019ve always stayed in touch and we get on pretty well.<\/em> \u201cSam started last season on an 8.00 average, we get him on 7.13 and I think he\u2019s very good value on that.<\/em> \u201cHe didn\u2019t have as good a season this year as he\u2019d had for the previous two or three years, and whilst it\u2019s a big shame under the circumstances that he\u2019s coming here, because of what\u2019s happened at Wolverhampton, I do think a change of track will do him the world of good.<\/em> \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to him coming in, and he should be pushing to get back to the 8.00 average that he had been reaching for Wolves in the previous few seasons.<\/em> \u201cI know another couple of tracks were interested, but he was well up for coming to Leicester, and that was pleasing to hear, and if it all works out I think he\u2019ll form part of a very strong heat-leader trio at home.\u201d<\/em> The winners of the tie will face Birmingham in the semi-finals, with the other last-four encounter seeing King\u2019s Lynn face the winners of the Belle Vue\/Sheffield quarter-final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" FORMER Australian Champion Sam Masters has joined Leicester for the 2024 Sports Insure Premiership campaign. Masters, 32, is an established track specialist at the Pidcock Motorcycles Arena, Beaumont Park, where he has often put in high-scoring displays. He makes the switch across the Midlands after being with Wolverhampton in the top-flight ever since 2016, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[8,11,9],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-british-speedway","category-speedway","tag-british-speedway","tag-leicester-lions","tag-speedway"],"yoast_head":"\n
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The Lions expect to have more news to announce during Sunday\u2019s Open Day, which gets underway at the Pidcock Motorcycles Arena, Beaumont Part at midday, with admission free.
*LEICESTER have been handed a KO Cup quarter-final tie with holders Ipswich \u2013 in a repeat of their 2023 encounter at the same stage of the competition.
The Watling JCB Lions held the Witches to a six-point margin of victory at Foxhall but were unable to contain the Suffolk side back at the Pidcock Motorcycles Arena as Ipswich won by ten points overall and went on to take the silverware.
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