Sand Racing Report 04/08/2012
After an 8 week gap for the car, cadet & junior competitors & 6 weeks for the senior bike riders it was back to local action for the 2nd half of this seasons summer racing. For the senior bike riders this was the meeting to be crowned King of the Beach with defending King, Anthony Bougourd out to retain his crown. Bougourd won the opening championship race from most likely contender to his throne Anthony Queripel. Bougourd then sat out the following 2 championship races waiting for the main race, this allowed Queripel to take the 2nd championship but he then sat out the 3rd one. This meant that there was a great tussle to take the honours in this championship race with Dave Cleal becoming the filling in a Teed sandwich as Robert gained 1st place & his father Colin a well deserved 3rd spot. On to the main race & over the first one & a half laps there was little space between the 2 Anthony’s but Queripel pulled ahead to regain the crown he had lost last year, Bougourd dropping back towards the back of the field as he was well beaten. 4th championship race went to Queripel & then it was the final race of the day for points for the Committee Cup. Having been beaten earlier in the afternoon there was no way that Bougourd was going to be beaten by Queripel again so was showing the younger rider now to get the most out of a slider by moving his body as far back onto the rear mudguard as possible along the straights before moving onto the tank for the corners. Of course these were not the only riders with Nick Russell on the 450cc Honda motocross bike, Eddie Goracy having to use his 40year old upright engine Jawa after destroying his newer machine down in Jersey a couple of weeks ago & making a return to the beach was Anyon Robilliard also out on a Jawa slider.
Josh Lambourne almost claimed a maximum number of wins but a seized motor in the Junior’s 2nd championship race put paid to that quest so Jarrod Carrington who had been much closer to Josh this meeting got one win under his belt. Josh having a spare bike was able to complete the meeting along with Billy Russell who was going well on his road converted KTM.
The 2 cadets first 3 races were tight battles with the wins for Barnaby Queripel in the 2nd & 3rd races going down to the decision of clerk of the course Ian Le Page as from the commentators box it appeared to be dead heats. Daniel Clark on the smaller of the 2 bikes did manage one win.
Jarrod Smith having had no competition so far this season in the racing car class joined the saloon boys with a 1300cc Colt only to find that he was still on his own as regular class competitor Eric Trump was away at a Mini show. A puncture in the first championship race on Shaun Leigh’s car allowed Wayne Martel to take the first of 2 wins as he also won the Metro Handicap Trophy. Large saloons were dominated by the Quatrro of Simon Carre so the battle for the other places was between the 2 Honda Accords of Paul De Jersey & Craig Whales & the Subaru of Darren De Carteret. The jink that appears to be affecting the racing car class continued for this meeting as Craig Addlesse having acquired the ex Simon Carre grass tracker discovered a fault with the clutch when coming to the line for practice & took no part in the meeting.
Paul Stanford