Andersen angryafter crashing on an ‘unfit track’

Injured Panthers captain Hans Andersen insists riders must have more say in whether or not a meeting goes ahead.
Hans Anderson in action.Hans Anderson in action.
Hans Anderson in action.

The Danish star suffered a fracture in his right shoulder when being caught up in a crash in his homeland last Friday night.

Andersen tangled with countryman Michael Jepsen Jensen in the first heat of a fixture between his Grindsted side and hosts Region Varde. The meeting was subsequently abandoned without a race being completed.

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Andersen has been ruled out of Panthers’ trip to Ipswich tonight (Thursday) in the SGB Premiership and faces a race against time to be fit to take his place in a World Championship qualifier at Glasgow this Saturday.

He told the Peterborough Telegraph: “We tried to race on an unfit track and unfortunately I got punished for it big style.

“Riders must have more say in whether a track is fit to race on. If our concerns aren’t shared by either the referee or the track-staff then why not send out a rider to have a couple of laps?

“That would be in the best interests of safety which has to be the priority for everyone. Had this happened in Denmark on Friday then we would have shown it was impossible to ride the bike on that track.

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“They could then have done more work on it, or realised it wasn’t fixable and cancelled the meeting without anyone getting injured.

“But we were only allowed to inspect the track shortly before the track-walk when I voiced my concerns about the condition of it. Unfortunately nothing was done and before we knew it the two minutes was on for heat one.

“It wasn’t a case of four young kids struggling to ride their bikes either – there were four very experienced riders in that race.

“I’m gutted to be missing our meeting at Ipswich as a result of being injured and the aim is to make it for Saturday.

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“The shoulder is feeling a bit better with help from painkillers and I’ll be having a lot of physio to try to work on the movement and power.”

Andersen’s clubmate Rohan Tungate also features in the Glasgow qualifier when the top three finishers will advance to the Grand Prix Challenge in August. The top three in that meeting then earn World Championship slots for 2020.

Another locally-based Danish rider, Niels Kristian Iversen, is also in the Glasgow field along with former Panthers men Robert Lambert and Craig Cook.

Iversen is an existing GP rider after successfully negotiating the qualifying system last season.