Crash sidelines sidecar pair

OUT OF ACTION: Mick Paul (left) and Paul "Blink" Blinkhorne will be spectators for the next six weeks. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

WANGANUI speedway sidecar swinger Paul "Blink" Blinkhorne is home in bed reflecting on what might have been after a spectacular crash at Ocean View Speedway on Sunday night.

The affable 51-year-old and his sidecar rider, Mick Paul, had already racked up a win and a second in the heats of the West Coast Sidecar Championships and looked likely to make the final line-up on their new methanol-powered Honda CDR 1000 with an Australian-built frame.

However, the final qualifying race proved a step too far when attempting to claim the leader around the outside of the tight-turning Ocean View track.

"He did move out a bit but I clipped his bike and we flipped - it happened really quickly," Paul said.

The bike hit the outside wall and rolled on top of Blinkhorne knocking him unconscious, breaking his collarbone and straining muscles in his back.

"I don't remember much really apart from waking up in Wanganui Hospital," Blinkhorne said.

"I spent a couple of hours in X-ray. Apart from my collarbone, there were no other breaks."

"I'm really sore. My back's sore. I've had broken bones before but never a collarbone and it's bloody painful.

"I can't get out of bed - lucky I've got a TV in here."

Blinkhorne said he was also fortunate that his son, Jimmy, was at home on school holidays.

"If Jimmy wasn't here, I'd be stuffed."

Paul escaped with only a few bumps and bruises and the bike was also relatively unscathed.

The crash was unfortunate timing after the pair had only just started coming to grips with the new design and power of the outfit.

"We struggled at the start of the season, but we changed everything around before the weekend and it was starting to work for us. It was a totally new set-up and, in Palmerston North on Saturday night, we were flying.

"We won the first race which put us straight into the final, but we unfortunately had electrical problems," Paul said.

"And on Sunday we were looking at least at a podium finish if not better.

"The irony is that the eventual championship winner was Clive Ireland from Gisborne and that's who we clipped. We'd beaten him earlier in the night and I felt we had his measure before crashing."

The Wanganui pair are three-time winners of the West Coast Championships.

Blinkhorne, a fencer and scrubcutter from Mangamahu, expects to be back in the frame within six or seven weeks.

"We were looking at competing in everything going now we have the set-up right, including the nationals," Paul said. "We may miss a few events while Blink recovers, but we'll be back."