Great Harwood horror crash bike racer back home (From Blackburn Citizen)

Great Harwood horror crash bike racer back home

9:22am Wednesday 8th July 2009

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A CHAMPION motorcycle sidecar racer who suffered horrific injuries in a crash has been allowed home after making an amazing recovery.

Dave Holden, of Great Harwood, is recuperating at home after he fractured his shoulder, hip, four ribs, a bone in his back and puncturing both lungs in a horror smash at Aintree race course, Merseyside, on Saturday, June 13.

He was taken to University Hospital, Aintree, where he was in intensive care before being transferred to the Royal Blackburn Hospital and then to Burnley General Hospital, where he was released on Friday.

He has stunned doctors by making such a speedy recovery, which he has put down to his healthy sporting lifestyle.

His sidecar partner Rob Coward, also of Great Harwood, was also treated at the Royal Blackburn Hospital after breaking his left wrist and injuring his foot.

Mr Holden, who is a former British sidecar champion and current Ace of Aintree champion, said: “We were practising at the racecourse when I was outside someone, over-taking them, when they pulled over and we ended up going through the bale.

“It was frightening but it’s a part of racing.

“I was driving at 100mph at the time and the sidecars have no wing mirrors.

“I was lucky that I only ended up with fractures not breaks.”

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