SAND RACING REPORT 9^th May 2013

For the 3^rd meeting of this season the clocks were turned back 40 years or more to the days when everyone worked 5 ½ days a week & Thursday afternoons was taken as time off & racing at Vazon was a regular summer fixture. Even though this was held on Liberation Day the number of competitors entered was at least the same as the previous 2 meeting with a slight increase in car drivers. Largest class was for 4wd production saloons with regulars Simon Carre, Darren De Carteret & Shaun Leigh being joined by Paul De Jersey in the ex John Le Page Audi Quattro & Craig Addlesee in the largest engined car a Subaru 3300cc. Though Simon ruled the roost he was been chased hard by Paul whilst Shaun & Craig both were having engine problems. Production cars 1400-1800cc was down to just 3 competitors which became 2 after the 2^nd race when a cv joint on Craig Whales car broke leaving Eric Trump to battle with Wayne Martel. Racing cars was a 2 car entry but again the 2^nd race saw the demise of Jack Sanders as when entering the slip corner on the last lap the rear nearside wheel parted company from the wheel hub rolling all the way up the beach at tremendous speed before hitting the concrete wall & rebounding back onto the beach. This left Gary Duquemin who was sharing his car with Kevin Rumens as the only racing car running but neither completed any of the remaining races. Final 2 racers were Faye Downes in a production saloon over 1800 making her only planned appearance for this season & Kayleigh Marquis who was on only her 2^nd ever meeting in the distinctive blue racing colours of the Marquis family in her modified Escort who went on to win the PMG handicap trophy.

The course had been laid out longer then in the previous meetings so it was fortunate that the five sliders that appeared all managed to keep running for all the races with only Bill Cohu having to pit early with a broken exhaust in the final race having had great battles with Rob Teed in the 3 championship races. Anyon Robilliard & Dave Cleal were tussling for the 3^rd & 4^th place spot so leaving Colin Teed to take the last place spot.

A more technical course had been laid out in the extended infield for the 7 motocross racers but this did not put off Barney Henry from taking a clean sweep of wins with Tony Duquemin only missing out of 5 second places in the final race. The battle for third place was well fought out with a number of different riders likely to take this spot.

Billy Rive riding his 250cc slider almost also got a clean sweep of wins but a tumble in the final junior’s race paid to that whilst Josh Lambourne & George Symons battled for the minor places with Ricky Rive not too far behind all on smaller engined motocross bikes. Another rider who did claim 5 wins was cadet Rhys Melass whilst his main rival Dan Clark was out riding the ex Dean Chandler family home built 65cc Kawasaki slider for the first time so was having to get to grips with a different riding style for this bike compared to his normal motocross bike which he did use twice though on his first race he did a 360 degree flip off the start line but still managed to complete that race. The cadets all enjoyed their afternoon as they gain more racing experience.

Paul Stanford.