MARK Loram today revealed that he has plenty to look forward to after a year he would rather forget.The Ipswich Evening Star Witches speedway rider is going to become father again; with wife Joanne five months pregnant.

By Elvin King

MARK Loram today revealed that he has plenty to look forward to after a year he would rather forget.

The Ipswich Evening Star Witches speedway rider is going to become father again; with wife Joanne five months pregnant.

It will be the couple's first child and Loram, 36, says that it does not matter whether the baby is a boy or a girl.

“The main thing is that the baby is healthy,” said a delighted Loram, who is making a good recovery from a badly broken left thigh sustained in the opening race of Ipswich's first Elite League meeting of 2007.

“Flo (Loram's pet name for his wife) is well and she is giving up work at the end of July.

“I shall be around to help with the formalities, but I don't know whether that is a good thing or a bad one.

“Every cloud has a silver lining and we are delighted with the news.”

Loram has had the plaster removed from the left arm he also fractured in a horrific second-bend crash in front of a stunned Foxhall Stadium crowd on March 22.

And he is able to now walk with the aid of crutches and able to put some weight on to his left leg.

“My last X-rays showed that the bone is the same as it was when I suffered the break,” said Loram, who lives just outside Stowmarket. The bone has not started to join yet.

“The compound fracture affected my blood vessels and these will heal naturally. After this has happened the bone should then knit together.”

Loram, who has a 13-year-old son Rhys by a previous relationship, is keeping a keen eye on the progress of a Witches side that is soldiering on using guest riders to cover for his absence.

“I look for the Ipswich results on the internet every night they ride, and went up to Foxhall for the rained-off meeting against Peterborough on May Day,” he said.

“They are struggling and I feel for them.

“There are just not enough quality riders to go around and something has got to be done.

“The authorities like to regard the Elite League as the best in the world, but it is not. Both the Swedish and Polish Leagues are better.

“But quality is not the big deal. Providing entertainment is the main requirement and seeing teams thrashed out of sight is no fun for anybody.

“I am not knocking Poole or any other club near the top of the table, but the Elite should be about more than one club.”