Sand Racing Report 17th August 2019

On a drab mid-August summers afternoon the sand racers assembled for the penultimate championship meeting of this season & the organisers had decided to spice things up for the adult MX Class. Not only were they racing for points in their two championships & the chance to win the Le Feuvre handicap trophy but were also out to see who would be crowned King of the Beach which would be decided on points scored over the 5 races held. To even things out there would be 2 championship races on the twisty course & 2 on the oval course. With Billy Rive winning both of the technical twisty races he was on maximum points for the King of the Beach trophy followed by twin brother Ricky, Jarrod Carrington who was fortunate to have ridden Ricky’s spare bike after problems with his own machine & Mark King. What would happen when they moved to the faster oval course, firstly Mark & Jarrod (back on his own bike) took a win apiece but Ricky was consistant with two more second places. This left Billy & Ricky on equal points (48) again from Jarrod & Mark. This just left the handicap race where the faster rides have to chase down the slower riders as they are set off at timed intervals. None of these 4 riders won this race that going to Paul Le Messurier but with Ricky gaining another second place at the end of the meeting he was duly crowned King of the Beach.

Bob Teed was going to honour his father by riding his bike with number 14 on it but when he realised he didn’t have enough 4’s to do this he decided to ride his father’s slider bike instead. Though he tried his hardest he just could not keep up to the pace of Jersey rider Jordan Noel who won all 5 races. Dave Cleal who was missing his tussles with Colin had instead to contend with Mark Burbridge on only his second slider ride giving him a hard time. Erin Ogier managed to finish most of the races but this was using a least 4 different bikes, her own 250cc & 500cc machines, Dave’s spare bike & for the final race she swapped with Bob, she found as she accelerated out of the corners that this bike was much quicker than hers so was wary of taking too much speed into the corners.

Dan Clark won all the junior/intermediate races whilst Sam Walker rode into second place & though Charlie Walker started the first 4 races unfortunately he never saw the chequered flag as mechanical problems ruled his afternoon. GiloRobilliard had it his own way in the cadets as Jack Pollard gets to grips with his new slider this just left Charlie Clark & Tyler-James Savident to fight out for third & fourth spot with very little difference in the performance of their slider & MX machines.

On the car front again it was just 8 saloons on the beach which soon became 7 as Neil Bourgaize’s Hyundai clutch packed up. OzzyOzanne had fixed the clutch on his big Jaguar but he found it difficult to get in front of the very rapid Toyota of Sam De Carteret which kept the larger engine cars of Gary Robert, Eric Trump & Gary/James Le Page behind him. Not one to lose heart Jamie Lucas was down with his third car of the season, having already broken a Skoda & Peugeot he brought a Ford Ka first time one of these has been seen on Vazon. The handicap race proved to be quite intense as the faster cars slowly gained on the slower ones with Jamie Le Page passing with a couple of laps to go long-time leader Matthew Board who just held off Sam for second spot.

Paul Stanford