Sand Racing Report 7th May
2016
Another healthy field of competitors
turned out for the 3rd round of this year’s season on a pleasant warm
day. Closest competition was found in the 11 bike MX class where Billy Rive
only failed to take 1 win in the five races & this was the handicap race
where he was scratch rider & could not quite make up the time deficit to
his twin brother Ricky who took the spoils. Though Billy took the wins he was
pushed hard all the way by a number of riders, including his brother, Billy
Russell, Hamish Moriarty & even young Jarrod Carrington who’s bike failed
at the end of the first race. Even the lower positions were being fought over
where riders have to balance the speed required from the wet corner to the slip
bend with precision riding through the twisty infield section of the course.
Billy Rive was no so lucky on his 500cc slider as the engine ‘popped’ at the end
of practice so left this class with only 4 riders who filled the same positions
for the first 4 races as Antony & Bob got in valuable practice for the
upcoming Sand Ace Meeting, leaving veteran riders Dave & Colin Teed to
battle for 3rd& 4th spots. Another combination out
for Sand Ace practise was the only local sidecar to be accepted in the entry
list, that of Clint Blondel& Ross Young who tried out the outfit they are
due to use before a wheel failure put them onto their spare machine. They are
certainly getting into this class of racing as they will be away next weekend
for the Champion of Champions & again the week after the Sand Ace for
another major event. Once again Bill Cohu was their only opposition with Eddie
Goracy as the passenger. Though Dan Clarke dominated the Junior/Intermediate
class the real focus was on the battle between Luke Bush on his 125cc bike
& Ben Le Prevost on a smaller 85cc machine for second place with the result
of 3-2 to Ben.4th/5th spots were taken up by Harry Ogier
on a slider up against Lewis Henderson on a MX bike whilst Erin Ogier is still
getting to grips with her larger 250cc slider. A small course was set up for
Sam Walker the only cadet out on a 65cc slider.
The cars were put out all together as
there were only 2 racing cars of Clint & Gary, 1 modified & 1 4wd
saloons & 7 production cars shared by 8 drivers. It is this last class that
has some serious & close racing as the cars are evenly matched to the
extent that Neil Bourgaize’s Civic came away from the beach lighter then when
it arrived as contact with Roger Naftel’s Mazda saw the front bumper being
deposited along the top straight. Jonathan Robilliard was sharing his car with
debutant Matthew Board who only had 1 race before going out for his first
handicap race, being the slowest driver he was away first & it was noticed
that his speed was increasing lap by lap to the extent that the other saloons
were not able to catch him but Clint Blondel after a botched start was on a
mission to get the win, as they came out of the slip bend for the 10th time the
Puma was still ahead but as they crossed the finish line it was neck & neck
with the Puma getting the win by the margin of a bumper.
Paul Stanford
Paul Stanford
Paul Stanford