Sand Racing Report 14^th April 2018

The sprinters & hill climbers both held their 1^st meetings of this season in wet conditions, the sand racers were much more fortunate it that the weather for their 1^st trip down onto Vazon beach was in glorious sunny weather. This helped to lift the spirits of those competitors returning to the sand to renew their passion for the thrills of high speed racing, whilst the newcomers were getting their 1^st taste of this sport. As usual it was the cars that opened up the season but were a bit thin on the ground as a number of cars were still not ready.Making a welcome return to racing was Mark Le Page sharing his welsh purchased racing car with wife Lisa, unfortunately a blown motor after one race curtailed their afternoon leaving only Andrew Henry in his Z Car special to take maximum points in the racing car class. Production cars up to 1800cc had 3 competitors with Paul Helyer in his road registered MX 5 up against the Puma’s of Matthew Board & Andrew Robilliard, new cars for both of these drivers having been in Peugeots last year. Both production cars over 1800cc & modified saloons had 2 competitors each in four different makes of car, with very little difference in speed between these cars. First trophy of the season went to Andrew Robilliard in the handicap race.  Likewise the old stalwart of beach racing the speedway/grasstrack slider bikes saw only 4 riders come to the start gate, but this was soon down to 3 after Billy Rive had dropped his machine exiting the slip bend in the first race leaving only father & son Colin & Rod Teed to do battle with Dave Cleal.

Largest class by far was for the MX bikes with 14 entries & if the rest of the season pans out like today then this is going to be the class to watch. The first 3 races went to young charger Josh Lambourne out racing Billy Rive who did have a slight handicap, as he had to start behind the rest of the field as his bike had a faulty clutch. Not far away from these 2 were Mark King & Ricky Rive with Josh Pinchemain& Paul Le Messurier not that so far behind. Even the mid pack were tightly bunched together. Once again these riders were using more of the beach as their races included a faster flowing twisty infield section except for the last race which saw them out on the full oval track where one of the more senior in age riders outdid all the youngsters to take a fine victory. The race for the Le Poidevin handicap shield was worked out by reversing the finishing order of the MX’s previous race with just small time differences between each rider starting the race, this saw Paul Le Messurier claim victory from Josh Pinchemain& Ricky Rive.

The cadets/juniors & intermediates having had the chance of some practice seasons at the motocross track field & on Vazon beach during the winter, so much was expected from the youngster’s, they did not disappoint. Firstly the length of the cadet course was increased by making a larger oval course on the inside of the slip bend this was then used by these 3 classes. Secondly because they use similar sized machines the cadets were riding with the juniors thus allowing the intermediates all using 250cc bikes to have their own race. The juniors did not take all the top spots in the combined cadet /juniors as Thomas Vining was defiantly out for race wins no matter whohe raced against, finally getting the better of Ben Le Prevost in the final 2 races. The intermediates lost Dan Clarke after 2 races with bike problems but this only allowed others to shine with newcomer Owen Waddingham leading the way.

Paul Stanford