BJARNE Pedersen believes Grand Prix riders should have the power to axe World Championship referees after suffering Millennium Stadium heartache at the hands of Marek Wojaczek.

Pirates' captain saw his hopes of clinching British GP glory in front of a record 45,000 crowd at Cardiff controversially ended by the Polish official.

Poole Castle Cover's star was clearly leading Nicki Pedersen on the first turn in their semi-final when they collided on Saturday.

But Wojaczek inexplicably excluded Bjarne as the prime cause of the stoppage after their first turn coming together when it looked as though Nicki had gone into him from the back, cruelly robbing the Pirate a chance of winning his first GP since 2004.

The remarkable decision also denied Bjarne the opportunity of securing a place in the Super Prix race-off in October when the winner will pocket a record $120,000 (about £60,000).

Wojaczek, who, amazingly, is the second most experienced GP referee of all time with 18 appearances behind Tony Steele's 31, is so patently out of his depth at this level.

And most people leaving the stadium at the end of the dramatic event had a deep feeling of sorrow for Bjarne, who had finished top of the qualifiers with 14 points and looked to have the speed and form to emulate his European GP triumph at Wroclaw four years ago.

The Poole rider, who increased his overall points tally to 29, exclusively told the Echo: "The most disappointing thing is he (Wojaczek) could be the ref in the next GP.

"In these things the riders are not allowed to have a say. That is wrong. If all the riders get together and say we don't want a ref like him in the GP system if he is not doing the job he should be doing correctly' he should be out."

Bjarne, whose exclusion was a replica of Leigh Adams' controversial one in heat 17 after Nicki also tangled with him, added: "Some people (the FIM) should look into these decisions.

"If they feel the ref has made the wrong decisions, he can't be a ref in the GP because it has cost important points to the riders.

"It's not just the 16 riders it affects. It's the 40,000 to 50,000 people in the stadium who could see it was the wrong decision.

"Is it just one man who couldn't see it?"

Asked about his conversation with the ref on the pit phone after his exclusion, Bjarne said: "He was saying I was moving line and moved into Nicki.

"But I was coming off gate one and Nick is off gate four.

"I am moving my line, but he has come from gate four into line two.

"The ref could easily have had all four riders back because it would not penalise anyone. That would be fair for everybody.

"I'll go away and try and forget it, but the frustrating thing is he (the ref) will be back in the GP system because the riders don't have anything to do about the selection of referees who are chosen for the GP.

"Even my Polish club's boss said he was sorry for me because of the Polish ref.

"When the Polish people come to me and say that, everyone knows it is wrong.

"I've got nothing against Nicki personally because of course he is going to try to win the semi.

"He was given his chance to win the race by the ref, not me. There is no bad feeling towards Nicki from me."

Bjarne, who climbed from 15th to 13th in the standings but remains 16 points adrift of the top eight, continued: "My incident was exactly the same as Leigh's.

"I just think it's unbelievable things like that can happen. It should have been all four back in both incidents.

"My overall result, 14 points, was very positive, though, although I was looking to get four, five, six more from the semi and final.

"I was gating very well and if I'd won the semi, I don't see why I couldn't win the final. I would've had first choice of gate and had beaten Jason (Crump) earlier in the meeting.

"I'm feeling pretty good and want to take the positives from Cardiff into the next GP in Prague and build on it.

"But I feel the ref took the final way from me here."