SAND RACING REPORT 25^th May 2013

For the 4^th meeting of the season it was all change in the course layout as for the first time this year there were separate corners at each end of the track for the cars & bikes to use which caused some problems for the cadets as they all rode the wet bend car corner in practise by were soon told to take the shorter bike route. For the motocross riders it was a complete change as instead of riding anti clockwise their course was laid out so that they rode clockwise, so after taking the wet bend onto the back straight they turned sharp right into the infield with a short burst to the next sharp left handed corner into a diagonal straight which included their compulsory jump before taking a long right hander back to the start/finish straight. This course did not put off Barney Henry who took all 5 wins but there was plenty of action behind with many an overtaking on or off the jump with Matt Le Gallez proving that his 125cc bike was a match for the 250cc machine of Tony Duquemin. Meanwhile his brother Paul was battling with father & son Nick & Billy Russell. On the sliders Martyn Guilbert did not have it all his own way as Mike Clark was up to taking a couple of wins with Rob Teed not that far behind. Dave Cleal was having a day to forget as his regular bike broke in practise so he missed the first race as he prepared his spare bike which appeared not to have the power he would have liked. The old guard of Bill Cohu, Colin Teed, Dave Patten & Eddie Goracy still showed that they could still ride competitively often leading the younger riders in Anyon Robilliard George Vandertang.

With illness & half term holidays the cadet & junior classes were depleted in numbers with only Billy Rive on his 250cc slider taking on George Symons on the Motocross 85 in the junior class with Billy taking all 5 wins. Race for first in the cadets was between 2 riders on very different 65cc Kawasaki machines, Rhys Melass on a motocross bike whilst Dan Clark’s was a slider. Dan did not start off too well as he stalled his bike at the start of the first race & could only gain a 2^nd place whilst in the next race trying to take the wet bend too quickly on the last lap saw him take a tumble & no finish but after that it was 3 straight wins. Whilst these 2 battled the other riders Braden Morris & Kieran Bennett had their own scrap on KTM bikes of 50 & 65cc which saw very little difference in their performance.

The usual car competitors were joined by Shaun Bichard for this meeting but it was the practise that saw the closest of action as going into the wet bend for the first time the cars all bunched up & it was Lee Sebire’s Honda CRX that suffered the most damaged at the front end, coming out in a later race the bonnet flew open & Lee had to retire from this meeting. Kevin Rumens sharing Gary Duquemin’s Honda 900 racing car only just managed to cross the finish line in the Filston race as the car lost all drive so was another retiree. The first three cars send away at the start of the handicap race claimed the first 3 positions at the end of this race but not in the same order as Wayne Martel just managed to overtake Kayleigh Marquis before the finish line.

Paul Stanford