Sand Racing Report 10th June 2017

Sand Racing Report 10^th June 2017

For the first time this season the organisers deem it prudent to split the first three car races into separate races for racing cars & saloons, as 5 of the racing type buggies were present on the beach,they are much quicker than the saloons. Billy Le Page ruled this class but Gary Duquemin will have to watch his mirrors as the others were not far behind his hold on second spot. Craig Addlesee did not feature in the results as flooding carbs meant he missed the first race & retired in the others also ending up with steering damage after making contact with the tyre barrier marking the entrance to the wet bend, of the two cars making their first appearance this year Sam De Carteret was the more successful as Andrew Henry’s car was another with mechanical problems. In the saloons making a welcome return to the beach after an absence of approx. fifteen years was Paul Buckingham who having sourced a Honda Civic decided it was too good for the beach so instead came down with a hefty rear wheel drive BMW 212 taking a couple of races to get use to its handling on the sand. Having replaced the water pump on his Hyundai, Eric Trump was still suffering from an overheating engine so the next remedy will be to change the rad but this did not stop him having close battles with Paul whilst leader of this class Karl Marshall ended up with his car only running in limp mode once a sensor had failed. In the smaller production class first place was battled out between Paul Helyer& Neil Robinson whist Matthew Board was at a loss as to explain he lack of speed for this meeting. Another car that was fully road legal & driven to the beach was the modified Focus of Steve Marquis, but a telephone at the end of the day was required to get a tow vehicle as the head gasket, cam belt & water pump had all failed.

Taking this chance as a final preparation for the Sand Ace meeting Clint Blondel/Kev Bennett only had Bill Cohu/Jason Carre as opposition in the sidecar class & when Bill’s engine went bang, Clint was left with doing demonstration laps. Meanwhile Rob Teed also had regular visitor Dan Winterton plus occasional visitor Andrew Whitaker to contend with in the slider class as they all prepared for the Sand Ace. For their third race Dan & Andrew swapped bikes but this did not stop Dan from winning though he had lost out on winning race two as he ran out of fuel. Just to make things interesting in the final race of the day Dan came out on Jack Bougourd’sJawa 250cc bike & still manged second place. Another person making a return to the sands but only after 3 years away was Josh Lambourne who was trying out a bigger 250cc Suzuki MX bike but would have to get use to riding the twisty section of the track having previously only ridden the oval course, he did not do too bad as he managed a third place slot. Once again Billy Rive did not have things all his own way as Jarrod Carrington just got to the finish line first in their second racebut did win the remaining races which included 2 races on the oval course which usually means closer racing in the middle of the pack & though Mark King came second both times third place was taken by Paul Le Messurier& Jarrod Carrington.

A stall by Dan Clark at the start of the juniors/intermediates second race left him at the back of the field, he then showed his determination to get to the front of the pack but trying to cut inside of race leader Luke Bush on the final lap through the slip bend saw them make contact, Luke continued to win the race, Dan retired with bent front wheel. Borrowing a wheel from the Ogier family he was able to contest the remaining races in his customary first place leaving Luke & Patrick Le Friec to battle for second & third places, fourth place was a three way contest between Harry & Erin Ogier& Ben Le Prevost. Sam Walker on a borrow bike & Stephanie Best had their own contest at the rear of this class. In the cadet class Thomas Vining was returning to the form we had seen earlier in the year battling with GiloRobilliard for first place. It was also close lower down the field with Casey Gallienne only out for a couple of races on Thomas’s spare KTM as his own bike would not start leaving Gemma Le Page to pick up more points from the two Charlie’s Clark & Walker on their small 50cc machines.

Paul Stanford