Aaron Summers revealed how he almost fenced his team-mate on the last bend of Glasgow’s League Cup win – because his pal was racing too slowly!
The Glasgow captain surged to a superb 14 points to help the Tigers beat Sheffield 51-37 in the first leg of the semi-final.
But he almost caused disaster when racing to a 5-1 in the final heat with Richard Lawson, nearly coming together with his partner as they rounded the fourth bend and sending Lawson for a brush with the air fence.
Summers, 27, said: “Me and Rich have ridden together a lot and we know how each other ride – and we know we won’t wipe each other out.
“But I was that bit quicker than Rich and Jason Garrity was making a lot of ground up on the inside of us. So I changed line but all of a sudden Rich seemed to slow up coming out of turn two.
“I thought he had bike trouble so I was trying to watch where he was plus make my entry into the corner. I turned in a bit early and clipped the grass and it sent me a bit wide.
“Me and Rich have ridden together enough to know that we’ll do our hardest not to ride each other – we’ll just team-ride where we can.
“If he was in trouble I could have shepherded him round but I was glad he got the power back and held on.”
It was an incident-packed and drawn-out meeting with three riders withdrawing after falls – Nick Morris for the home team and the visitors’ Ashley Birks and David Bellego.
Birks appeared to come off worst with a suspected broken collarbone and dislocated shoulder. The news for Glasgow No 1 Morris appeared more positive as he was able to watch the rest of the meeting from the pits, despite being a bit shaken up.
Morris came to grief in heat six after a few of the riders had found the track difficult to deal with early on.
Summers was one of the only men not to end up on the shale, and he said: “The track was a little bit iffy to start off with – there was a fair bit of dirt on the entry to the corners and we were trying to get that sorted out a little bit.
“Nick sort of came into that and James Sarjeant came in off the slick, and he ended up slowing down mid-corner while Nick had all the speed coming through on the dirt and clipped him, which was a bit of a shame.
“He was a bit banged about, but hopefully he’ll be OK.”
Glasgow face Sheffield in the second leg at Owlerton on July 16 and Summers is confident that 14 points gives them a good cushion with which to go into that fixture.
He added: “It’s a pity we didn’t have a full team and everyone clicking – imagine what the score could have been then.
“We really need all seven riders back and gelling as a team, and winning easily from the front – there’s no reason why we can’t.”
There is no match at the Peugeot Ashfield Stadium on Sunday as the British Grand Prix takes place in Cardiff on Saturday.
Tigers scorers: Richard Lawson 16+1, Aaron Summers 13+1, James Sarjeant 7+1, Victor Palovaara 7+1, Dimitri Berge 5, Nick Morris 3 (withdrawn), David Howe R/R.