Sand Race Report May 21st 2011

Once again the senior bike riders provided the largest class on the beach with a total of 15 competitors to ride on a smooth dry beach on a glorious sunny afternoon. Dan Winterton did not have it all his own way for this meeting with strong opposition from the 2 Anthony’s Bougourd & Queripel with Martyn Guilbert being the only other rider to get into the top 3 in any of the 5 championship races. With the large number of riders it was difficult for the lap recorder to keep an accurate record of the middle & lower placings as even in these short 4 lap races the back markers where being lapped as the leaders took the chequered flag. Surprisingly the only incident with this amount of riders out together came when Pierre Rive parted company with his big Suzuki Sand Blaster 1100cc machine in the wet bend needing the ambulance to be called down but thankfully not required to make a hospital visit. Jersey’s top rider Jamie Griffiths was a welcome addition to the programme getting in some practice for the big Condor Sand Ace meeting which is the next event on June 4^th at 1.30pm.

In the junior class Billy-Reece Rive once again dominated except for the 1^st race when he pulled into the pits on the final lap. To show that it not just his bike that is quicker then his rivals in the final scratch race he swapped with Billy Russell & proved that the Kawasaki 85 was as good as his Honda 85. Second place was hotly contended by the 2 bright yellow Suzuki 85’S of Josh Lambourne & Jarod Carrington whilst Ricky-Lee Rive was having to battle with Billy Russell for the 4^th & 5^th spots. Unfortunate rider was Alain Bronquet who only managed to finish the 1^st race.

The 2 little cadet riders once again had their own track marked out with blue cones so that they would not follow the line of the larger circuit & once again they were evenly matched with Daniel on the little wheel Honda just pipping Barnaby on the large wheel Honda with 4 wins to 2 & so that the riders could see the last lap & chequered flags with ease the finish marshal was kneeling down holding these out at their eye level.

 There was a slight increase in the number of cars present up to 10 for this meeting & they all completed at least one race but once again newcomer Stephen Oliviera was the 1^st to retire with a broken rose joint on the rear suspension of his grass tracker but at least the engine was running better. By the end of the afternoon 2 other competitors had retired by with more serious problems as the engine in Mark Ozanne’s dominant Ozzyworth was making some very strange noises meaning a replacement engine required whilst Eric Trump has once again got to find another car as the engine in his Peugeot has expired. Ian Robert was another welcome returnee to the racing car class in his Kawasaki 1100cc grass track car & in the final 2 races had a terrific battle with Simon Carre.  Faye Downs was the new saloon car driver down for her 1^st time at Vazon using the class winning car of 2010 previous owed by Vienna Le Cheminant.

  Paul Stanford