DANIEL Davidsson believes he was “lucky” to escape serious injury after crashing out in heat one during Castle Cover Pirates’ controversial home clash against Lakeside on Wednesday.
The Swede, who fell heavily into the first-bend safety fence and took a heavy blow to his left shoulder after colliding with Lee Richardson, withdrew from the meeting citing collarbone problems.
But he did not undergo an X-ray yesterday ahead of his scheduled Swedish League match for Valsarna last night as the swelling had gone down and he did not feel any bones were broken.
Davidsson, whose five-man team also lost Chris Holder to injury but bravely held Hammers to a backs-to-the-wall 45-45 draw, said: “The wet track conditions caused my accident and I’m really not happy about it.
“Kauko (Nieminen) made a fairly good start from the inside but Lee just came across and I had nowhere to go.
“They both shut off before they started to turn and I ended up on the deck because of it.
“I just went into the side of them and it’s lucky I didn’t take Lee into the fence with me because if I’d been half a metre in front, we both would have gone in.
“Track conditions definitely played a part in my fall because normally you don’t shut off going into the first corner.
“Because everyone was a little bit concerned about the state of the track, they hesitated a bit and I wasn’t ready for that.
“I was really cheesed off because they didn’t take the wet dirt off before the meeting started.
“Fourteen riders said ‘take it off’ but they kept putting more and more on and, as a direct result, I crashed.
“I was lucky to get away with it. It could easily have been a broken shoulder or collarbone.
“We have a lot of experience with wet tracks. You always take the dirt off.
“Then, if they have a bit of fresh shale, put it on with a bit of sawdust.
“It was a silly decision and I want to know why I had to crash before they took off the dirt and made the track right.”
Heavy rain saturated the Wimborne Road surface before Wednesday’s Sky Sports-covered meeting.
But the wet shale wasn’t taken off until after Davidsson’s opening heat spill as the televised meeting was held up for over an hour because of a late start and stoppages for re-grading.
Davidsson added before his meeting last night: “My shoulder’s not as swollen as it was on Wednesday night. It’s got better over time.
“It was a great result for Poole and we should be happy, especially with me and Chris out.
“If we’d been in the whole meeting we would have won it.
“Fair play to the boys, they rode hard and got a point.”
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