Sandrace August 14th 2010
On a grey August Saturday afternoon the two most sort after trophies were up for
grabs at the latest sand race meeting. For the bike boys it was the title of King of the Beach, whilst the car drivers had to face the 20 lap handicap race for the Victoria Trophy. Also on the programme were 3 races for apprentice riders (riders who had either never ridden on the beach before or only as juniors, all on 500cc slider machines).The practice laps
were an eye opener for these 4 riders, Jamie Thompson, Chip Le Page, George Van Der Tang & Daniel Pinchmain as firstly they had to work out which part of the track was the bike course especially in the wet bend were they all ran wide into the car course, that the cones marked the inside & outside of the course, riding outside the cones was not too be done.
Unfortunately Chip Le Page got it all wrong as drifting out through the car course too quickly he was unable to turn inside the cones & ran right up to the wooden gryones sticking out of the sand just in front of the solid sea wall, though Chip was OK continuing racing on Colin Teed’s & Dave Cleal’s bikes his bike belonging to his father Jon Le Page sustained serious front forks/wheel & frame damage. Once racing got under way these novice riders did not disappoint the small crowd of spectators on the wall & if enough other apprentice riders entry at future meetings they again will be able to have a few races of their own. Once they had done their 3 races if they wanted to continue they had to ride in the same races as the senior riders which they did do.
With Dan Winterton absent from this meeting Anthony Queripel had no problems taking 4 championship wins, the committee cup & more importantly the title of King of the Beach. The other places were well fought with Bill Cohu & Robert Teed having some good battles, whilst Dave Cleal picked up a string of 2nd places. With no senior slider riders out for the final championship race it was left to the only 250cc bike of Eddie Goracy to battle with the 900cc Honda Sand Blade of Nick Russell for race win honours which just went to Nick which also was the first time in many a year that a non slider has taken an over 350cc class win.
Though Billy-Reece Rive was able to take 6 race wins he was being pushed hard by both Billy Russell & Josh Lambourne & it was Josh on the smaller 65cc machine that was able to keep ahead & a much tighter line through the corners to take a well earned win in Junior’s final championship race. One rider who was making great improvements all afternoon was Jarod Carrington who was now riding a Suzuki 85cc bike so had the same amount of power as the other riders so was able to gain a number of 3rd place spots thus keeping Ricky-Lee Rive out of this position. The final 3 meetings of the season should have some exciting racing from these 5 young riders.
The wet beach with a double ridge in the slip bend which collected water was not kind on the cars as a number were suffering various problems during the afternoon. With only 2 600cc grass track racing cars present it should have been close racing for these 2 but a broken wheel rim during the 3rd race ended Jake Kennedy’s afternoon so leaving Simon Carre to uphold racing car honours. Though he has been missing for 2 years Martin Dorey showed no rustiness in his racing putting some of the larger cars to shame as he throw the little 1396cc Honda Concerto around with vigour at most times dicing with the larger Civic of John Dean & the MR2 of Jack Sanders. It was John who suffered the most as he had to contend with 2 punctures, a broken wiper blade leaving little visibility & a broken fan which caused the engine to overheat, whilst Ricky Le Cheminant kept getting misfires through water in the electrics. In the large car class there was a different winner for each of the 3 championship races, Eric Trump taking the 1st before a blown head gasket ended his afternoon, Shaun Leigh the 2nd who also was side lined with problems whilst Darren De Carteret in an automatic Honda Accord Coupe took the 3rd thus just leaving Carl West in the mighty Lexus 4000cc without a race win. Come the 20 lapper for the Victoria Trophy that though there was a good battle for 2nd place the runaway winner was the only lady competitor present Vienna Le Cheminant.
Paul Stanford