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.