Sand Racing Report 6^th April 2019

April has arrived so it’s time for the sand racers & their machines to return to Vazon beach for another season of fast, trilling & close action. After everyone had their mandatory practice laps it was the racing cars that got the action underway with the 4 drivers all using 1100cc bike engines in their small lightweight cars. Andy Henry stamped his mark on proceedings by taking all 3 race wins from the duelling brothers of Billy & Mark Le Page, whilst Mark’s wife Lisa took over the car in the final race. There were 9 saloons across 3 classes battling for the honours of taking class wins & though a returning OzzyOzanne in the big modified Jaguar took all the race wins he had to battle against the smaller engine cars to get to the head of the field. Gary Robert in his trusty Clio was the only other car in this class. Sam De Carteret was having to learn a new style of driving as he has ditched his buggy this season for a front wheel drive Toyota Corolla & was up against last year’s champion Matthew Board in the up to 1800cc production car class. The closest racing came in the production cars over 1800cc where Eric Trump & Neil Bourgaize were the only ones using cars from the previous season whilst Jamie Lucas was out in a Skoda Octavia. Also making a welcome return to the beach was Billy & Mark’s brother Gary who had decided to go down the route of a Honda Civic type R& Faye Downs in a slightly older Honda Accord.

Erin Ogier has now moved up as an adult & may be the first female to ride in the up to 500cc motor cycle (slider) class on her 250cc machine. Unfortunately she only completed the first race due to bike problems but could not have been disappointed as she was not lapped by the faster riders. Due to Condor’s boat being cancelled Jersey rider Jordan Noel could not bring his bike up to race but a kind gesture by Paul Van Der Tang saw him out on Paul’s bike & though he wasn’t quite pushing Rob Teed to closely he was close enough to pounce if Rob made an error. Colin Teed & Dave Cleal were once again fully supporting this class though Colin did take an unfortunate tumble off the start line in their 3^rd race.

The largest class out was once again the MX bikes with a total of 15 riders. Unfortunately the lap records/commentary caravan was further away from the track then normal due to a row of rocks & puddles forcing the track to be laid lower down the beach making it almost impossible to read to numbers on these bikes so that a result could not be confirmed for the first race. The remaining races were Ok as the lap recorder went & stood closer to the track. An experiment was taking place during this event as transponders had been fitted to a number of bikes & cars & a loop laid into the sand on the finish line to record these vehicles, this seemed to work so may be rolled out acrossthe classes. This class again proved to have all the action with the Rive brothers having to defend from Billy Russell & Jarrod Carrington for the top slots whilst other positions were constantly changing. The 2^nd race was red flagged due to a bike broken down on one of the sharp corners on the twisty track so was restarted when another red flag was shown as Josh Pinchemain had taken a tumble in the slip bend & needed to have medical attention, this meant a delay which resulted in each class having to lost one race.

Due to a change in ACU regulations it is no longer permitted for Junior & Intermediate riders on sliders or MX bikes to race together so has to be split into 2 races. This saw only 2 MX riders with another member of the King family making her debut on the sand as Alisha Wild King riding as an Intermediate up against the more experienced junior rider Ben Le Prevost. In the slider section there were 6 riders, Thomas Vining & Charlie Walker as juniors, Dan Clark, Harry Ogier, GemmaLe Page & Sam Walker as intermediates. Dan lead these races but will have to watch out as Thomas on a smaller bike was not too far behind, Harry was having to ride his sister’s bike so was also only able to complete one race whilst Sam & Gemma were having their own battles. Fortunately the cadets can race together whatever type of bike they are riding, Lewis Le Blanq has moved onto a slider but this did not stop GiloRobilliard on the smaller mx bike giving him close racing whilst Jack Pollard on another mx bike was keeping ahead of Charlie Clark on his slider.

Paul Stanford