The Danish star was involved in a terrifying heat six accident during the club's 57-35 Elite League defeat at the hands of Poole - a result which destroyed their proud unbeaten home record stretching back to August 2006.

Andersen picked up unexpected drive on a grippy surface, clipped the rear wheel of Poole's maximum man Davey Watt and spectacularly hit the deck with his bike flying over the safety fence.

See the photos of the incident and read Mark's full report: Panthers lose proud home record on horror night - Panthers 35, Poole 57
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Incredibly Watt and fellow Poole man Craig Watson avoided the carnage and thankfully Andersen's machine missed all spectators.

Fans are kept the regulation two metres back from the fence but such was the impact of the crash that his bike landed in that exclusion zone and bounced into the public viewing area.

Crash victim Andersen was the first to admit he is a lucky man. He said: "It was completely my fault as I clipped the back tyre of Davey's bike after picking up a bit of drive and that was it . . . lights out.

"The crash took a hell of a lot out of me and I realise how lucky I am. I feel slightly concussed but it is incredible that I have come out of a crash like that with nothing worse than being battered and bruised.

"Thankfully it looks like my bike came out of it worse than me because that is virtually completely written off – only the engine is salvageable.

"I wanted to continue in the meeting but the doctors advised me that would not be a good idea and in hindsight I'm glad they did."

Andersen is due to undergo physiotherapy in Poland today in a race to be fit to line up in the European Grand Prix at Leszno tomorrow.

Panthers dropped to second bottom in the Elite League after this loss. Fellow strugglers Ipswich followed up their destruction of Panthers on Monday by beating Wolves 53-38 at Foxhall last night to climb above the city side.

But defiant Panthers boss Trevor Swales insists his side will bounce back better than ever from their most harrowing speedway experience in recent memory.

Swales said: "We have been building that home record for a hell of a long time and people don't need me to tell them how disappointing it is to see it go.

"We only had four heat winners at our own track and you aren't going to win a thing with statistics like that. I honestly don't know what the answer is at the moment because we have riders who should not be performing as poorly as they are.

"This was a harsh lesson and we have to come back stronger from it."



Report & more pictures - Page 34