KYLE Newman has escaped serious injury after an horrific crash during Somerset Rebels’ 49-41 win over Scunthorpe Scorpions on Friday night.

Newman was treated on track by paramedics for around half an hour after careering head-first into the safety fence while trying to pass Ashley Birks during heat 10.

He was later taken to hospital amid concerns about his neck, but it was later confirmed that he had suffered whiplash and no bones were broken.

Newman is expected to be fit to ride in Friday night’s home match against Redcar Bears at the Oaktree Arena (7.30pm).

The Rebels will also be waiting on the fitness of Tom Perry, who hadn’t recovered from his shoulder injury in time to face Scunthorpe.

Perry’s place was taken by Newcastle’s Chris Schramm, while Peterborough’s Patrick Hougaard came in to replace unavailable No.1 Jason Doyle.

Hougaard proved to be an equally spectacular deputy for Doyle with his all-action style helping him bank 13+1 for the Rebels cause.

The highlight was undoubtedly his victory in heat 13, where he had to charge past team mate Josh Grajczonek before overhauling leader Micky Dyer around the final turn.

With Grajczonek third, the 4-2 Rebels heat advantage ended a run of three successive shared heats and opened up the home side’s lead to 43-35.

After that, consolidation was the name of the game as Somerset closed out the meeting with two drawn heats to clinch maximum points.

Earlier, it was the Scorpions who set the initial pace and led 16-14 after the first five heats.

Somerset’s first maximum of the night in heat six, courtesy of Hougaard and Newman, overhauled that deficit and the hosts were never caught – with nearly two thirds of the evening’s heats being shared.

Behind rider of the night Hougaard, Alex Davies scored 8+2 and Grajczonek 8+1, backed up by solid showings from Newman (7+1), Nick Morris (6) and the returning Stefan Nielsen (5+1).