Santa Pod crash drag racer ‘lucky to have two legs’ – AMAZING video. (BBC)

Santa Pod crash drag racer ‘lucky to have two legs’

A motorcycle drag racer is “lucky” not to have lost his legs in a high speed crash in which he ended up on his opponent’s bike, his fellow rider has said.

Greek racer Filippos Papafilippou’s bike crossed the dragstrip’s centre line and collided with opponent Steve Woollatt, from Hertfordshire, during Sunday’s race at the Santa Pod Raceway.

Catapulted off his bike, Mr Papafilippou landed on the metal “wheelie bars” that extend behind Mr Woollatt’s machine and got his foot caught.

“He’s lucky he’s still got two legs,” Mr Woollatt said. “He was caught up in the back quite severely.”

Emergency crews had to cut Mr Papafilippou’s trapped foot free from under the wheelie bar.

He suffered only a skin abrasion to the foot where contact with the track burnt through his leather racing boot.

Keith Bartlett, CEO of the Bedfordshire-based Santa Pod, said: “This was a very, very rare incident.

“We’d never, ever seen here a bike go across the lane and make contact with another one.”

Video here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-29162676