SANDRACING REPORT 09/05/2009
For the third meeting of this season the bikes riders faced their 1st Team Race challenge between the Richmond Rebels & the Albecq All Stars led by Anthony Queripel & Mike Clarke. With only 10 riders taking part, 5 in each team & with only 4 team members riding in each race there were a total of 6 heats with each rider having to ride in 5 races. This format produced a few surprises especially when Anthony Queripel only managed 1st places in his final 2 rides & his lack of scoring points in the earlier races saw the Richmond Rebels being defeated by the Albecq All Stars by 115 points to 103, which in itself was quite a turn up as the All Stars had the only 250cc motocross bike of Eddie Goracy in their team. Each team was also running with Jersey competitors Jamie Griffiths & Kevin Bishop on their 500cc sliders. Their was an 11th rider just out for some practice laps as he was recovering from a hospital visit & that was English competitor Dan Winterton who would have claimed a number of 1st placings if he had been officially entered on the programme. To round off the day there was an inter island Bahn Record (flying lap) for 2 riders from each island so representing Guernsey were Anthony Queripel who posted the fastest time of 20.85, from Martyn Guilbert on 21.00, for Jersey 15year old Joe Bishop on a 350cc Jawa who had only been doing some demonstration rides as he is too young to ride with the 500 sliders & cannot ride with the juniors as he is on a slider bike posted a time of 22.35 whilst Jamie Griffiths came in on 22.63.
The junior riders were joined for this meeting by Billy Russell so this makes 5 riders in this class at present. It was Billy-Reece Rive who had the upper had over his twin Ricky-Lee taking all 6 championship race wins but when it came to the final scratch race there was nothing between them at the finish to the extent that the officials called it a dead heat
With no racing cars present in was an all saloon affair in the car classes, though with these 11 competitors spread over 5 classes there is very little competition. Once the head gasket had gone again on Colin Bridle’s Skoda Special there was only Mark Ozanne in the Sierra leave in the special’s class & Alison Baudains soon lost any competition in the modified class when for the second meeting in a row the engine on Steve Marquis’s Escort failed, he‘s now stating that he won’t be back on the beach ever again. John Le Page in the only 4wd car can only race for the fun of it whilst in the production class over 1800cc saw 2 new cars on the beach. Lisa Robilliard having had 2 meeting with a 1300 Micra has now moved up to a more powerful VW Golf claiming her 1st win in the handicap race was joined by Phil Brehaut in a 2litre Honda. The class that had the most competition was in production saloons 1401-1800cc with 4 drivers fighting for positions. Unfortunately Doug Le Feuvre was still having electrical problems on the Honda CRX which meant that the car would only run on all 4 cylinders intermittently whilst Eric Trump lost his clutch towards the end of the 2nd championship race thus leaving John Dean to take 2 wining spots whilst Paul Stanford though not quite as quick as the others has proved to be very reliable.
Paul Stanford