Sand Racing Report 20th August
2016
Blustery winds did not deter the racers
as they competed on Vazon beach for the penultimate Saturday afternoon.
Reigning King of the Beach Dan Winterton once again was visiting these shores
but this time with a different bike, this one fitted with a Swiss built Gerhard
GTR motor. This proved to be very quick as after coming second the local ace
Anthony Bougourd in the first slider race then took wins in the remaining 4
races, thought the last win was on Anthony’s bike (Anthony was trying out Dan’s
bike but did not place) Another English rider Rob Fortune was also making a
return visit & though not a quick as Dan & Anthony did get the better
of Rob Teed to claim 4 3rdplaces & a 2nd. Making his annual one
off appearance was Mike Clark who though visiting the gym 3 times a week found
the workout of riding much more tiring, especially getting the bike away from
the start tape but was quicker than the other veteran riders Dave Cleal&
Colin Teed& even manged to take a tumble exiting the wet bend. Dave was
another to come off again without injury.
For the car drivers this meeting
presented their biggest challenge if that wanted to take victory in the
Victoria Trophy 20 lap handicap race, would their cars last for this race which
is over twice as long as a normal race. With all cars timed over the preceding
3 races the handicapper works out the order of start with the slowest car away
1st working down by time increments to the fastest car which was
left sitting on the start line for almost 2 minutes approx. 3 & a half laps
behind the lead car. As the race unfolds cars begin to catch one another till
they are all on the same lap but for the fastest car Billy Le Page the waiting
around at the start eat into his fuel so that when it hiccupped a couple of
times it meant retirement (a bigger fuel tank required for next season). As the
cars came to the finish line it was the modified saloon of Simon Carre that
took the win from Neil Bourgaize& Andrew Robilliard in their production
based cars. In the championship races Clint Blondel did enough to take the
racing car class whilst Jonathan Robilliard had to borrow his brother’s car for
these races as when preparing to tow his Ford Puma to the beach a half shaft
broke.
The MX class was back up to 8 riders for
this meeting including hill climber Marcus Crittell who just hung on to the
lead position in the Silver Goblet handicap race. For the first 2 championship
races Billy Rive had to watch out for a very quick Jarrod Carrington who was
pressuring him all the way, unfortunately a bike problem in the 3rd
race saw a non finish for Jarrod but for the remaining 2 races he borrowed Luke
Bush’s smaller 125cc machine & even managed 3rd spot on the oval
course race. To liven up the Junior/Intermediates Dan Clarke selfimposedup to
half a lap handicap at the start of these races so that he could do some
chasing but he still managed to win the first 3 races before a gear box problem
forced his retirement for the other races. Luke Bush took these 2 race wins but
the battle was close for 2nd& 3rd between Kieren
Bennett & Patrick Le Friec, whilst it was good to see Erin Ogier out for
this meeting having taken a nasty tumble last meeting, her brother Harry did
not compete due to a back injury. The 2 Cadet riders Gemma Le
Lage&GiloRobilliard were very closely matched alternating 1st&
2nd spots on each race. With no competition to race against Clint
Blondel blew off the cobwebs on his original side car outfit for a couple of
runs before returning to his now regular machine & was giving the chance to
Kev Bennett & Martin Le Prevost to try out the passenger position in the
hope they will compete next season.
The finale of the 2016 sand race season
is on Saturday 17th September at 12.15pm.
Paul Stanford
Paul Stanford
Paul Stanford
Paul Stanford