The Moama Water Sports Club made the decision to disqualify the 2019 champions on Tuesday night after they breached maritime rules during a training run last Saturday.
MWSC president Steve Shipp explained the decision on Wednesday, which he said was agreed upon by the entire committee.
“The team of TR went through a maritime buoy down at Deep Creek Marina, which is a four-knot zone,” he said.
“So, in effect, they’ve disqualified themselves by disobeying a maritime rule. Our conditions of entry are that anyone going through there will be disqualified.
“If we don’t do that, maritime wouldn’t give us, or we wouldn’t be able to get, an aquatic licence, and there wouldn’t be a Southern 80.
“It’s a seemingly harsh penalty on TR, but it’s a penalty that is for the good of ski racing in all, because it means that maritime will give us support when we get our aquatics (licence) for the future.
“It’s something that the water sports club agonised over a lot last night, like ‘is everything okay? Can we change?’, but we can’t.”
The TR team was contacted for a response but did not wish to comment further on the decision, stating they accept the ruling from the MWSC committee and wish all participants a safe race on Sunday.
TR was seen as the best-placed team to end Sapphire’s streak of back-to-back wins, with driver Ian Tricker, observer Nathan Miller and skiers Jake Ellery and Jack Stevens having last year claimed the Baker’s Blitz title.
The decision means the superclass entries are now whittled down to five boats, with Superman, Brimstone F1, Supernova and Hellbent remaining in the top class alongside Sapphire.
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