Sand Racing Report 12th
September 2015
Sunshine shone on the competitors &
officials as they gathered on Vazon beach for one last time in the 2015 Sand
race season & though it was the final fling there was a healthy entry.
First up were the cars with 2 racing
cars of Gary Duquemin& Clint Blondel each gaining a championship race win
but unfortunately Clint ended the 2nd race with a broken drive shaft
thus allowing Gary to take the remaining wins for these cars.8 production
saloons in the 1400 to 1800cc class were present with the usual competitors
being joined by car captain Peter Jory out in a Honda Civic which he had
converted from automatic to manual as a test run for a Winter season of Autocross racing but
having taken 3 wins out of 4 for this class may have to consider keeping it
aside for the 2016 sand race season. On a track that was shorter than previous
meeting’s, according to Jonathan Robillard top speed was only 55mph going into
the wet bend, previous meeting was 75mph, this kept the field tightly bunched
so it wasn’t surprising that a number of vehicles went home with buckled
bodywork, in fact there was not one straight panel on Eric Trump’s car &
when it was discovered that the rear suspension was also twisted it became
apparent that his car will be consigned to the scrap heap. Whilst Eric knows he
has to source a new car one or two other competitors will have to decide if to
repair the cars they have or look out for new ones to race next season.
Next up were the 2 Intermediate’s &
it did not matter if Ben was chasing Jarrod or vice versa the only thing that
was guaranteed was that they would be going as quick as possible at all times,
let’s hope in time they move up to the senior ranks. Following them was the
original senior class for up to 500cc slider bikes, which had an 8 bike entry.
After their first championship race won of course by Anthony Bougourd, followed
by visiting Yorkshire rider Andrew Whitaker, Anthony & Colin Teed retired
from the meeting to allow Dan Winterton& Rob Teed to ride these bikes. For
the remaining races the leading battle was between the 2 English riders with
Dan taking 3 wins whilst Andrew was victorious in the Handicap race thus
leaving Rob to battle with Dave Cleal for the lower positions. Billy Rive only
came out for the first race then concentrated on his MX bike whilst George Van
der Tang managed to start some races but never saw the chequered flag. New
class for this season, the sidecars, saw a new entry of Jamie Queripel&
Nathan Baudains who had to overcome a clutch problem which left then stuck in
one gear & having to make a rolling start. They got quicker as the meeting
progressed & didn’t do anything wrong. Once again Pierre Rive/Ian Le
Bouillier retired after the first race leaving Clint Blondel/Ross Young to
battle with Bill Cohu/Jason Carre for race honours. The MX class again was
contested by just 5 members of 2 families, with twisty course wins evenly
shared out by the Rive twins Billy &Ricky, though Billy gained on his
brother by taking the final race win on the oval course. Battle for third place
was contested by Dan & Nathan Pinchemain again taking 2 apiece but Nathan
did spoil the race results by taking 2nd in the oval race. Poor Josh
Pinchemain was always tail end Charlie & perhaps just trying too hard to
keep up with his brothers took a tumble in the slip bend which necessitated the
use of the red flag to stop one race, he was not hurt so later continued
racing.
The final group to go out onto the sands
at each meeting are the Cadets/Juniors who perhaps are the stars of the future.
Harry Ogier having now got to grips with his slider is showing the same sort of
determination as Dan Clark whilst Ben Le Prevost thought riding a smaller
machine was out to show Luke Bush on his bigger bike that size does not matter
& these two had ding dong battles for their five races. Jack Bougourd
riding the 110cc slider is gaining in confidence but a larger framed bike is
surely needed whilst Erin Ogier is slowly regaining her confidence having taken
a tumble earlier in the year, so it perhaps fitting that it was these 5 riders
in their final race of the year that brought to a close a successful 2015
season.
Paul Stanford
Paul Stanford
Paul Stanford