Superbike rider Howie Mainwaring-Smart  came  close to suffering serious injury after he miraculously dodged a rival racer’s  hurtling bike.

Mainwaring-Smart, 25,  competing at  the Oulton Park circuit in the MCE  British Superbike Championship at  the weekend, slipped off the wet track  before Jamie Poole followed suit – with  his dismounted bike flying towards  the dazed Frodsham rider.

The heart-stopping near miss was  captured in a sequence of incredible  shots by freelance motorsport photographer Glynne Lewis, who is just  thankful Mainwaring-Smart came out  of the incident unscathed.

“Howie just lost the front going into  the corner and slid on to the grass  going into a right hand turn,” Lewis  told The Chronicle.

“Going into the Hill Top corner  you’re decelerating from around  130mph and Poole has slipped off just  after him and luckily his bike didn’t  hit Howie.

“It’s just missed him and  everything is happening so  quickly at those sort of  speeds so when the bike has  come toward him he’s managed to get himself out of the  way.

“If the bike had hit him he  almost certainly would have  suffered some serious injuries but thankfully it hasn’t  hit him.

“When a bike is coming  toward you, you just have no  idea where it’s going to go.”

The race was red flagged  and Mainwaring-Smart’s  bike was too badly damaged  to make the restart.

However, the following day  he was able to put the dramas behind him to claim   top-10 finishes in the event’s  two other Superbike races.

Mainwaring-Smart, who  broke his back in a motocross accident in 2011,  said of the weekend’s incident: “I didn’t know much  about it to be honest.

“I lost the front going into  the chicane and the last  thing I remember is just the  bike coming over the top of  us.

“But overall we had a good  weekend and I was just very  happy to be able to give  something back to the team  with the eighth place finish  on the Sunday.”

The crash topped a rollercoaster weekend for the  25-year-old, who arrived at  Oulton Park to find himself  without a team after his  squad pulled out of the  championship.

Thanks to a series of  last-minute sponsorship  deals with Tsingtao beer  and MSS, Mainwaring-Smart was able to get  back on the grid while still  riding a Kawasaki.

Mainwaring-Smart married Paula Smart last year  and has adopted his wife’s  surname. The couple have a  baby daughter.

Mainwaring-Smart will  now turn his attentions to  Cadwell Park in just over a  week’s time.