SAND RACING REPORT 27^th July 2013

It wasn’t the roar of engines being fired up or the whiff of petrol fumes that drove the surfers, swimmers & beachgoers off Vazon by 3pm for the latest meeting but the return of the usual Guernsey weekend weather with heavy rain descending to make a very wet track for the afternoon. The slider class had the addition of English rider Phil Ashcroft who had brought his sons along to race as well but with the wet slippery conditions Liam & Ryan Ashcroft decided not to ride along with local Dave Patten. In the first race Martyn Guilbert was the closest rider to Phil whilst in the remaining races Rob Teed was his closet challenger so Phil took 4 out of 5 race wins allowing Rob to take maximum Committee Cup points. The remaining riders were made up of the old guard of Bill Cohu, Dave Cleal & Colin Teed with Anyon Robilliard mixing in with them. The MX class was not dominated by a single rider though Adam Le Lacheur did manage 3 wins. Their 2^nd race produced the most unexpected result when first Tony Duquemin came to a stop on the jump corner then Adam & Barney Henry ended up in a tangle riding the tricky twissing infield section thus allowing the back markers to come through to take the leading positions with Billy Russell just piping his father Nick to the chequer flag.

It did not matter if Billy Rive was riding his JRM 250 slider or his Honda 85 he managed to take 4 out of 5 wins only losing out to Josh Lambourne in the race that he changed bikes. George Symons was giving Josh some close attention but failed to complete the final 2 races so this give Ricky Rive some valuable points. The usual battle in Cadet class was between Dan Clark & Rhys Melass on their two different style Kawasaki 65cc bikes with Rhys taking 3 wins too Dan’s 2. With a number of riders having bike problems it was good to see that the riders on the little 50cc bikes Brandom Morris & Ben Le Provost get into the published results with the only rider not to get a top 3 position was Kieran Bennett whilst Barnaby Queripel came good in the final 2 races.

With only 2 cars competing in the Racing car class this championship is the closest with only 5 points difference between Jack Sanders & Gary Duquemin at the beginning of this meeting & staying the same at the end as they both took a win & second place. With his closest rivals not competing Eric Trump increased his lead in the 1401-1800cc production saloons & Simon Carre did the same in the 4wd saloons. The closest race was once again the handicap race where Faye Downs took a very narrow win from Simon Carre who just passed Eric Trump on the run to the finish line to take 2^nd place.

Paul Stanford