Sand Racing Report 29/09/2012
It took till the final meeting of the season to produce the largest turn out of competitors which was helped with the inclusion of 3 Jersey riders Kevin Bishop, Jamie Griffiths & Marcus Bisson in the adult bike class. In fact these 3 riders went on to dominate the first 3 positions in the majority of the races the only locals getting a look in were Mike Clark with one 2nd position, Anthony Queripel one win on Mike’s bike as his had blown its motor in practice, Dave Cleal with one 3rd spot & best of all Robert Teed with two wins, a second & a third. Even though this was the last meeting it did not stop a newcomer joining this class when Anthony Bougourd’s nephew Joe Manning rode for the very first time on one of Anthony’s bikes without any problems except for riding outside of the course on exiting the wet bend. In the last race he swapped bikes with Nick Russell & looked a little more comfortable on the moto cross machine whilst Nick got to grips with the handling of a slider. Colin Teed, Eddie Goracy & George Van Der Tang were the other riders present.
A larger then normal cadet’s track was laid out for the 5 riders in this class, which allowed Daniel Clark to get the maximum out of the Kawasaki 65 to the point that he managed to lap most of the other riders. Barnaby Queripel out on a Thumper 110cc for the first time just was not able to keep up with Daniel’s pace & was coming under strong pressure from newcomer Jamie Bacon on a Husky Boy 50 for the 2nd place spot. Out for only his second time was Kieran Bennett on a KXD 50 who was riding with more confidence whilst another newcomer Chloe Le Page on a KTM 65 was slow off the start line thus giving the others a head start.
Car numbers had increased with Jack Sanders being the only retirement in the Grass tracker ZZR 1100 which has been fully restored over the last couple of years thus this left David Rice as the only racing car. Eric Trump was joined by Craig Addlesesse in the up to 1400cc saloon class whilst in the class for 1401-1800 Shaun Leigh had lent his Honda Civic to Paul De Jersey who was competing with Shaun Bichard & Wayne Martel in this competitive class. Making a return to the beach after an accident earlier in the season was Faye Downs out in Darren De Carteret’s Subaru in the over 1800cc class along with Craig Whales & Simon Carre.
Final word must go to Junior Jarod Carrington who has supported sand racing all this season but found himself with no competition. Now too old to ride with the cadets but not old enough to ride with the adults he had to ride his 6 races alone & so brought the curtain down on the 2012 season as his final race was the final race on the programme.
Paul Stanford