Sand Racing Report 11^th August 2018

The latest round of the GMC&CC LBG’s season of sand racing events ended approx. one hour early due to an untimely serious accident which befell MX bike rider Mark King. Mark was leading the first of two races for these bikes on the oval track when on the fourth lap he came into contact with a late starting backmarker exiting the slip bend resulting in rib & wrist injuries, the race having been red flagged & stopped meant there is no result for this race. Previously the 14 riders in this class had contested 3 races over the longest oval/infield twisty track that had been laid out this season; they produced 3 excellent tightly fought races with little space to spare between the top flight riders including the Rive twins, Joshua Lamborne& Jarrod Carrington. Though these riders were at the head of the field there was plenty of action taking place behind them as the following riders were swapping positions lap after lap as they fought for championship points. It was a pity that the other classes could not benefit from this long course but due to various reasons like holidays, cars not repaired etc. the number of other competitors was less than usual. Due to boat schedule changes Jordan Noel could not get from Jersey so this only left father & son Colin & Robert Teed to contest the slider class resulting in 2 wins apiece.

As some of the intermediates, juniors & cadets had been away for further training the previous week it was expected to see some improvement in their riding. For this meeting the intermediates were riding a course about 2/3’s length of the full oval track so were going faster than normal but though the riders liked it the bikes were suffering. 3 laps into the first race the engine in Dan Clark’s bike cried enough thus allowing Stephanie Best to take the first of 2 wins on her MX style bike from the others slider’s. In the second race it was Erin Ogier’s turn to win with Stephanie the only other finisher. It was not till the fourth race that Harry Ogier got a win so at the end of the day it was girls 3, boys 1. Having gone away for training it was the first time that Rhys Melass had sat on a slider & showing promise came back to Guernsey with a 150cc slider which he rode quite well after being use to a MX machine. It took Thomas Vining 2 races before he could master the tight course laid out for the cadets & juniors thus giving Ben Le Prevost the opportunity to win these races before he took wins in races 4 & 5. The other riders all seemed to have progressed in their performances.

A broken chain on the start line for practice ended Sam De Carteret’s afternoon thus leaving only 2 racing cars & 4 saloons to race together. The only battle for championship points was between Matthew Board & Paul Helyer in the production class up to 1800cc whilst Mark Le Page racing car, Eric Trumpproduction over 1800cc& Gary Robert modified saloon all clinched their class championships. Closest finish of the day was in the handicap race where Nick Duquemin had to come from almost a lap behind the scratch car to overtake the 4 saloons on the last lap to claim his first trophy. Next meeting on 28^th August will be the penultimate & will include the 20 lap Victoria handicap trophy for cars.

Paul Stanford