Adam Michael Blake, 35, also kicked the older man in the face, according to the prosecution’s case in the Launceston Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

Mr Blake contested a charge of common assault upon complainant James Peter Holmes, 59.

Police prosecutor Kerryne Barwick called the Launceston Airport operations manager to give evidence about what happened on September 21, 2014.

Mr Holmes said he was returning from Quamby Bluff with his partner along the Meander Valley Highway when he overtook an L-plate motorcyclist.

He said he reduced his speed to enter Westbury, a 50km/h zone, when the motorcyclist, who was ‘‘gesticulating quite obviously’’, rode very close to his driver’s side door.

Mr Holmes said he wound his window down, the rider yelled something, then manoeuvred ‘‘very close’’ in front of his car and pulled over.

He said he stopped his car, got out and the rider, who was still wearing his helmet and visor, approached him and aggressively accused him of having ‘‘cut him off’’.

Mr Holmes said he and the man ‘‘wrestled’’ on the ground and the man punched him in the head, probably held him in a headlock, and then the man stood up and kicked him in the head when he was on all fours, leaving a boot impression on his face.

He said he then got the man into a headlock, they wrestled on the road and the man stood up again.

‘‘He grabbed my head and banged my head into the road twice,’’ Mr Holmes said.

‘‘I think it was around the top of my forehead."

Mr Holmes said he suffered a split lip, bleeding and grazing.

Under cross-examination from defence solicitor Fran McCracken, Mr Holmes denied yelling abuse at her client and further denied being the aggressor.

Mr Blake gave evidence and said the driver, ‘‘a very big and strong fellow’’, started their physical confrontation opposite the Westbury church.

He was amused when he recalled ridiculing the complainant because of his interstate number plates.

‘‘I’m laughing at him, ‘Listen to your f---ing missus mate,’’’ Mr Blake told the court.

‘‘I said, ‘What are you, fresh off the boat?’ because I noticed that he had Victorian registration.’’

Magistrate Sharon Cure adjourned the matter part-heard to October 23 at 2.15pm.