Sand Racing Report 15th August 2015

There was a disappointing field of just 3 riders (from an entry of 7 which turned out to be 5 on the day) for the most prestigious slider trophy to be won with the accompanying title of King of the Beach. As expected Anthony Bougourd rode away with this race win but was chased hard by Rob Teed & Dave Cleal who had both taken a championship race win earlier in the meeting as Anthony rode a steady second race& rested from the third race in preparation for the big race. Colin Teed still suffering from the knocks he received when taking a tumble at the last meeting retired after one race as his knees where still painful so this only left Billy Rive on his smaller 250cc machine to give chase.

Clint Blondel having seen his only rival in the racing car class Gary Duquemin blow his motor in the second race won all the remaining car races including overtaking all the saloon cars after starting last in the Moulin Challenge handicap race by quite a margin which surprised the handicapper. The next sidecar race was also a handicap & there were only 2 competitors as Pierre Rive/Ian Le Boutillier had already retired with engine damage. Bill Cohu riding with a lot more consistency & no engine problems though having new passenger Eddie Goracy alongside him managed to keep Clint Blondel& Ross Young behind them to the final lap so Clint also took home the Blondel Shield in what was a harder win then the car one.

A close first MX race saw Billy Russell just pip Billy Rive to the chequered flag but the second was a disaster for him, as his bike throw off the chain going into the first corner leaving him out of this race and back onto his smaller 250cc machine for the remaining races. This meant that the battle for the top spot was a brotherly one as Ricky wanted some of the action too whist Paul Le Messurier is now it a good spot to pick up any leftover podium places should any of the top riders fail.

Six similar production cars fought out for every position as Wayne Martel took the most wins whilst Eric Trump was a constant runnerup but we lost Richard Valpied’s Ford Puma with a broken clutch. For once Jarrod Carrington did not have the track to himself in the Intermediate bike class as Dan Clark already insuring himself of the cadet class title this season has now moved up to this class. Their first two races saw Dan chasing Jarrod but for the remaining races Jarrod made sure he started after Dan so then he was doing the chasing but in the final race he left the gap a little too big so Dan took one win. With Dan moving up this allowed the cadet class which is mainly made up of newcomers this season to get more laps in as they were not being lapped as often. Harry Ogier now is the most senior in this class so took all 5 race wins from Luke Bush who was riding the only none slider machine, whilst Jack Bougourd having seized the engine on his Honda 70 was out on one of Dan’s older bikes, the slider with a 110cc Thumper motor, but was having a bit of trouble getting away from the line, losing a whole lap in the first race allowing Erin Ogier to take 3^rd spot in only her second meeting on her 125cc Keyway bike.

Paul Stanford