Sand Racing Report 9th September 2017
The sun did shine as competitors & officials assembled on Vazon beach for the final time of the 2017 sand race season & though entries may have been a little down in adult competitors there was no let up the cadet, junior & intermediate classes as final championship points were still on offer. It is a credit to the club that 18 youngsters aged from 6 to 16 riding in these 3 classes on either MX style bikes or sliders were present with the support of their parents, relatives & friends. The support & training that the club provided earlier in the season has seen an improvement in the riding skills of the majority of these youngsters who hopefully will continue riding on into their late teens & as adults. Unfortunately there was a delay in proceedings as Stephanie Best had to be transported to hospital after taking a heavy fall from her bike & a little later Lewis Le Blanq also needed treatment on the beach. In the classes Thomas Vining won all the cadet races but the minor placing were well fought out. Dan Clark is now finding it harder to win in the mixed junior/intermediates as Patrick Le Friec & Luke Bush were pushing him all the way to the finish. Though racing has now finished in Guernsey both Thomas & Dan will be racing in the national grass track meeting in October.
The largest entry of local sliders saw Bill Cohu & Billy Rive make rare appearances but is was the battle between father & son Colin & Bob Teed which was of interest as the class championship was to be decided at this meeting with Bob taking the spoils whist Dave Cleal completed 47 years since his first race. With the MX twisty course championship already being decided in Billy Rive’s favour he did not push himself too much in these races allowing Jarod Carrington to take the wins as his main aim was to win the oval championship. The title fight was close but another win sealed another title for Billy as Mark King just could not match his pace. Unfortunately the earlier delays meant that this class could not close off the season with the 20 lap handicap race for the Pealing Carey Trophy. The 2 sidecar outfits of Clint Blondel/Kev Bennett & Bill Cohu /Jason Carre were on the beach but though Clint has pushed hard showing what can be achieved here & away this class has been poorly supported by other local’s.
With breakages that occurred at the previous meeting the number of cars present were down to just 7 & with Sam De Carteret’s buggy deciding to digest its engine there were just 6 left spread over 4 classes so the only competition was in the production cars 1400-1800cc class. The only real interest came in the handicap race where Billy le Page had to overtake the first car away the Mini of Graham Jehan 3 times to gain the lead but as Graham himself lost the lead to the other saloons Billy could only manage 3rd behind Matthew Board & winner Neil Bourgaize.
Though the season has ended work will not stop as repairs, modifications, purchase of new machinery will take place over the winter months whist some competitors will move on to trials or autotests during this period, before returning to Vazon in 2018. Date for your diary Sand Ace 16th June 2018.
Paul Stanford