Sand Racing Report 29th August 2015

Gloomy weather deteriorating to heavy rain showers did not put off those competitors that had entered the penultimate sand race meeting on Vazon beach for this season with handicap trophies to be won in every class except the cadets. This meant extra work for chief handicapper Michael Stanford as he had to time all the vehicles over a flying lap of the course before working out their relative starting positions from slowest to fastest in each class. His first challenge was for the car boy’s longest race of the season the 20 lap Victoria trophy which was reduced to a 5 car entry as Clint Blondel had already retired his racing car with a broken chassis. For some reason this race did not go in Michael’s favour as Gary Duquemin quickly caught & passed the 4 saloon’s and so lapped them before the race was over thus making this his third handicaprace win so far this season. The next handicap was for the sliders but only two riders came to the start line & when Colin Teed pulled back into the pits after 1 lap this allowed Dave Cleal to take a hollow victory in a shorted race for the R Le P Shield. The next handicap should have been for the sidecars but as both Pierre Rive & Bill Cohu where having mechanical problems they had retired, Clint Blondel did come to the line but did not complete a lap as the track was very wet he retired before he aquaplaned off the circuit. This just left the fifteen lap handicap race for the MX Scramble Trophy & this was to be a challenge for members of just two families with the Rive Twins taking on the Pinchemain brothers as they had been doing through their previous championship races. For the first few laps nothing seemed to be happening then as you watched you saw that second man away Dan Pincheman was gradually catching his brother Josh who had been first away whilst further back the Rive twins were catching & then passed Nathan Pinchemain. By 2/3rds distance Dan was leading whilst the Rive Twins had moved up to 2^nd& 3^rd. The final laps were enthralling as the distance between these 3 riders was decreasing lap by lap. Through the twisty infield section on the 14^th lap Billy Rive trying perhaps a little too hard to pass his brother Ricky took a tumble on one of the corners & being unable to restart his bike was out of this race. This left Ricky on Dan’s tail for the final lap & the final sprint out of the wet bend to the finish line was closely watched & at the line Dan took the win by no more than the width of rubber on his front tyre, must have been the closest finish in any race all season.

Before these races had been run the normal collection of Championship & season long trophy races had taken place for all classes which were depleted due to a clashing motocross event, holidays, broken vehicles etc. but showing he had lost none of his riding skills was Mike Clarke who borrowed Anthony Bougourd’s spare bike who in his words ‘I’ll be out for the ride, I’ll not be competing’ obviously said before the tapes were dropped for the first race. With no Intermediates entered Dan Clark dropped back into the cadet class but their race distance had been increased to 6 laps to give the other rides more time on their bikes as Dan being so quick usually manages to lap the whole field even in the shorter races. Dan did not manage a clean sweep of 6 wins as on the start line for their 3^rd race his bike refused to fire up so gave Luke Bush a race win. Brother & Sister,Harry & Erin Ogier both were having troubles with their bikes but were able to get a couple of races by using Jack Bougourd’s Honda 70cc whilst he concentrated on his slider & thought he rides he smallest bike on the beach Ben Le Prevost managed a string of 3^rd place podiums.

Paul Stanford