Guernsey Motor Cycle & Car Club LBG
Sandrace Meeting April 17th 2010
The first meeting of the 2010 season was held on a bright sunny warm afternoon but this was no consolation for reigning 500cc champion Daniel Winterton who was unable to fly out of the UK due to the volcanic dust cloud that was hovering high in the sky. It was hopefully to be a good afternoon for the 2 riders who had been competing for 40 years each, Dave Cleal & Mike Cark, but chain trouble on both of their bikes left them with very little running. The fight for the lead in most races was between the 2 Anthony’s Bougourd & Queripel with Anthony Queripel gaining the upper hand, fights for the lower places were between father & son Colin & Robert Teed & Jon Le Page who had to use the Teed’s spare bike after his had problems. So these were the slider riders but there were 2 further racers in this class who started & finished every race on very unlikely sand race machines, well done to the both of them providing much talk & excitement, Pierre Rive on a monster Suzuki Salt Blaster 1100cc & Nick Russell on a Honda Sand Blade 900cc, both of them stripped down road bikes running on knobbly motocross tyres. These 2 at least gave the only 250cc bike rider present Eddie Goracy someone to chase.
In the junior bike class 6 riders came to the start of the 1st race but before the end Billy Russell was out for the afternoon on the Kawasaki that was giving him trouble at the end of last season. Runaway leader of this class was Frankie Brouard on the 150cc Honda but there was rivalry between the Rive twins & Josh Lambourne for runner up spot with Billy-Reece gaining 3 2nd & 3rd spot to Josh’s 1 2nd & 2 3rd’s whist Ricky-Lee could only manage 2 2nd spots on a bike that often refused to finish a race. Young Jarrod Carrington did manage 1 3rd placing before taking the chequered flag in the juniors last race of the day which was changed form a straight forward scratch race to a handicap race thus allowing the slower riders the chance to lead a race &.have to be chased instead of doing the chasing.
On the car front there was only a turn out of 8 cars but even before the meeting started newcomer Paul Kennedy in his Grasstacker was out with a broken clutch thus leaving only Simon Carre in his 600CC Honda RR in the racing car class.
Likewise in the Production Saloons up to 1400cc Vienna Le Cheminant was on her own & Shaun Leigh was by himself in the class for over 1800cc cars.
This left 4 competitors in the production class 1401 to 1800cc but by the end of the 1st race Eric Trump’s Rover had blown the head gasket so another car will have to be prepared for the next meeting. Once again John Dean was the head of this class in a Honda Civic whilst Mike Bichard in the Carisma & one time single seater driver Ricky Le Cheminant in only a 150cc Honda Civic did battle for the other 2 places. Newcomer Vienna Le Cheminant took home the first car trophy of the season winning the Winslow Handicap race from a fast charging Simon Carre.
Paul Stanford