Monday 22nd October 2012, 14:45

Poole have booked British star Chris Harris as a guest after Grand Prix star Niels-Kristian Iversen was ruled out of tonight’s Elite League Grand Final due to flight problems.

The Danish rider was set to cover for SGP rival Darcy Ward, who is sidelined with a head injury.

Iversen was due to jet from Wroclaw to London Stansted on Ryanair’s 11:55 departure, but the incoming plane was diverted to Poznan “due to fog” at Wroclaw airport.

When contacted by Speedwaygp.com, Iversen was on a bus heading for Poznan, but admitted his chances of making the flight to London and getting to Poole in time for the 7.30pm start are remote.

Iversen was gutted to leave Poole in the lurch, albeit through no fault of his own. He said: “There was fog in Wroclaw and the plane from London couldn’t land today. So it arrived in Poznan instead.

“The information was just too late and everyone who was supposed to be on that plane is now on a bus to Poznan.

“All the other flights from Wroclaw were full. There was one to Bournemouth an hour earlier, but when I checked the information before I went to the airport, everything said it was on time. So I didn’t see any reason to go to Bournemouth. I had already booked the Stansted one and my car is there.

“There were other flights landing in Wroclaw from Spain and Glasgow, so I don’t understand why they couldn’t land this plane. It was the only one that has been redirected.

“I think I’m out of it tonight. I don’t even know what time I’m going to be in Poznan.

“I went to try and get a flight with another airline – SAS or Lufthansa, but nothing was possible. Everything arrives too late. There was nothing going direct. I had to fly from there to Frankfurt or Warsaw before going to England.”

Iversen wishes he had known of the hold-up early enough to jump on the Bournemouth departure, which would have put him 30 minutes away from Wimborne Road.

He said: “If Ryanair had properly updated their website and said it wasn’t on time, I could have tried to get on the flight to Bournemouth.

“I was really looking forward to doing that meeting. I was getting myself fired up. Of course I don’t have the same commitment to Poole as the other boys who have been riding all year.

“But it’s always fun to take part in a meeting like that. It’ll be a great atmosphere and a lot of fans. It would have been fun to ride for Pirates in a meeting like that. But it looks like it won’t happen.”

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