DYNAMIC Dane Benjamin Basso insisted it was “difficult” for him to leave Pirates over the winter – and did not fully close the door on one day returning as a home rider at Wimborne Road.

The 21-year-old was parachuted in mid-season to help Pirates record a league and cup double in their first full campaign back at Championship level in 2021.

But having negotiated with the club over terms for 2022, the former world youth champion declined a return and opted to join Glasgow, due to their Friday race nights.

Basso said that decision was not easy to make, despite promoter Danny Ford at the time labelling the call a “massive kick in the teeth” for the Dorset club.

Odense-born Basso recorded five paid six, as the Tigers went down 51-39 at Poole on Wednesday.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Echo this week about what happened over the winter, Basso said: “I actually had a little chat with Danny about the situation but, unfortunately, they are riding on Wednesdays over here.

“Every Danish club is riding on Wednesdays as well. It wasn’t really going work out because I didn’t want to disappoint anyone over here.

“I didn’t want to disappoint anyone at home or my Danish clubs. It wasn’t really going to work out, whereas at Glasgow they had the Friday meetings which was working out better for me if I just wanted to race and race.

“It was a shame because I would have loved to come back but I am so happy to be at Glasgow as well. Good people up there – I am just feeling appreciated.

“This is a job for me. I can’t just be one of those guys who just rides once in a while and do good sometimes.

“I’d rather just be riding all the time and getting that consistency into my results. It was definitely a choice I had to make and a difficult one as well, but I am glad I chose what I did.”

Ford also originally said Poole would be prepared to “work around his Danish commitments and even racing on off race nights to accommodate him in our team” when speaking about Basso.

Asked for his take on that situation, the Dane replied: “We talked about sometimes changing like maybe one or two meetings to Thursday meetings instead but, as we also talked about, the fans - they know Wednesday is speedway at Poole.

“They schedule their working hours for Wednesdays and all that.

“I can’t tell whether they would have changed it or not but I had to make a decision at the moment.”

Basso is now also a Glasgow asset, the clubs having swapped his status with that of Richard Lawson when the deal was done over the winter.

But the SGP2 racer did not rule out a sensational return to Dorset one day in the future.

“Yeah, you can never say never,” he added. “But right now I am at Glasgow and I am really happy at Glasgow.

“Maybe one day, if Danny decides to change the Wednesday meetings I might have a look into it!

“But I am actually quite happy where I am now.”

Engine trouble at Poole blighted Basso’s chances of racking up big points against Pirates – and he even nearly took a wrong turn ahead of racing.

He said: “I almost went into the wrong changing room when I went over with my bags!”

“It’s definitely something else coming here as an away rider.”