Sand Racing Report 6th June 2015
English rider Paul Cooper totally dominated the slider class at the
latest round of this season’s sand racing season taking the 5 race wins on a
bike borrowed from Anthony Bougourd. It was Anthony & regular visitor to
Guernsey Dan Winterton who had to give chase & these 3 riders showed a
foretaste of what’s to come at the SandAce meeting on 4th July with
very quick racing, riding to the limits of the track &just beyond, leaving
the marshals at the exit of the wet bend replacing a number of cones that had
been knocked over. The other local racers gave chase but had to take up the
lower placings with Rob Teed & Billy Rive both picking up a 3rd
spot whilst Dave Cleal still gets use to his new bike. Colin Teed again had
trouble with his machine so borrowed his son’s bike for one race but rode
carefully on it so as not to ruin Rob’s day as well. With no jump in place the
MX boys laid out a longer twisty infield section but whatever the course is
like, it’s the 2 Billy’s Rive & Russell that battle out for 1st
place with Ricky Rive thereabouts also. For once the Le Messurier twins had to
go back to their usual practice of sharing a vehicle as Paul’s bike had
problems so whilst Ian rode the championship races Paul took over the bike for
the handicap & oval races to good use as he won the handicap & came 2nd
in the oval, certainly a great improvement for them both as they get more
experience on the beach.
Dan Clarke once again showed his mastery of the cadet class lapping
the rest of the field in each race. It now appears that the slider route is the
way to go in this class as Harry Ogier was once again out on Dan’s slider from
last year & Jack Bougourd had the use of Dan’s older 110cc machine, though
he did also revert back to his MX style bike for the last 3 races this left
only Luke Bush riding a MX bike for the entire meeting. With Ricky Rive
concentrating on the MX Class this left Jarrod Carrington as the only
Intermediate rider so had to do his races on his own but he did not toddle
around the course but went as quick as possible gaining more experience ready
for when he moves up to the MX class.It was disappointing that only 2 sidecar
outfits made it to the beach for this meeting again with both suffering
problems. Bill Cohu’s bike had a passion for turning right unexpectedly down
the top straight so it took to the 3rd race to sort this out before
clutch problems intervened. Clint Blondel’s bike flew through the 1st
race but then suffered a major problem in the 2nd when the rear
wheel collapsed.
There was a slight increase in the number of cars on the beach as
Richard Valpied returned with his Puma thus having 8 production cars fighting
close together down the top straight from the off as they headed to the wet
bend in each of the 4 races started from outside of the slip bend. Though this
is a noncontact sport a number of cars went home requiring minor body work
repairs as the racing between these cars was intense throughout each race &
Neil Bourgaize’s car went home lighter then at the beginning of the meeting as
the rear bumper got ripped off. After 3 seasons on the beach the Civic of Eric
Trump has had to be retired with a blown motor but already another car is under
preparation so that Eric can continue racing. The 2 4wd saloons & the 2
racing cars continued to have their battles with the Audi of Karl West being
very quick off the line & it look a number of laps before the racing cars
could find a way past, though not tightening up the front wheel nuts resulted
in Karl retiring from the handicap race & having to reverse from the wet
bend back to the pits as damage had been caused to the nearside front wheel hub.
Paul Stanford
Paul Stanford