SANDRACING REPORT 27/08/2011
The penultimate meeting of the season had a slight
international flavour to it as South African Rudy Maree more use to riding
powerful road bikes on track day events was out riding a slider on sand for the
very first time having secured the use of Colin Teed’s spare bike. Not only
having to learn to ride this bike but Rudy had to work around a faulty clutch
release but this did not put him off his stride managing to complete most races
& not always in last position. Once again Anthony Queripel was in a class
of his own taking 6 wins from 6 starts leaving the real battle between Martyn
Guilbert’s flat out low down style & steady Robert Teed who has been the
most improved rider this season. As expected Dave Cleal was the next best rider
whilst lower down the field there were battles for the remaining places. Trying
not to be last was Bike Captain Phil Ferbrache (more use to a motocross
machine) who was using the Van Der Tang’s Nu-Trax RM 250 slider which had the
smallest engine in the senior class & he did manage to kept ahead of George
Van Der Tang who was on a Jawa 500. The only incident was an accident between
Jamie Thompson & Dave Patten on the slip bend which left Dave with a broken
collarbone.
Only 5 juniors were out but there was some serious
racing on the long but tight cornered track due to a not to low tide & a
westerly wind pushing into the beach. The main battle was between Alain
Branquet who was improving on the normal course & Josh Lambourne on the
smaller engined bike. Alain gained 4 wins to Josh’s 2 whilst Billy-Reece Rive
had to be content with a number of 3rd spot places though he did win
the final scratch race. Billy Russell did manage to secure a couple of 3rd
spots when other riders had made errors but Ricky-Lee Rive had to sacrifice
running in the final 3 races as he had to lend his bike to his twin brother
Billy-Reece who is now the quicker of the twins once his bike suffered a down
on power engine.
There was a contrast of engine size’s in the 2 white
grass track cars that appeared, Gary Duquemin’s Dave had an engine twice the
size of the one in Jarod Smith’s Honda CBR but that did not stop Jarod from
having the faster car as though they both won 3 races, Jarod did not start them
all. Saloons mustered only 5 cars (1 was shared) but at least in the up to
1400cc class there were 2 entries as Eric Trump was making a return after
missing the last 4 meetings with a Renault Clio to take on Darren De Carteret.
In the 1400-1800 class Karl Marshall only missed out taking 1st
place in 1 race but put in a spirited drive from a poor start to claim 2nd
spot in that race. The shared car of brother & sister Ricky & Vienna Le
Cheminant were there in 2nd spot most of the time whilst Faye Downs
was out again in the 1500 cc Civic. Though a number of drivers have missed
various meetings & may miss the final meeting on 17th September
as it clashes with the Alderney motor sport weekend the winners of the various
championships & other trophies cannot be confirmed until we see who turns
out for the final meeting.
Paul Stanford
Paul Stanford