Sand Racing Report 29/05/2021

With two red flag incidents occurring at the latest meeting time was seriously curtailed & the event was abandoned before it’s allotted finish time due to the ambulance having to leave the beach for a bike rider to be taken for a check-up at the hospital. This only allowed enough time for every class to get in a practise & two races.

As has become the norm it was the adult MX riders, 17 in total, that put on the closest of races but it was also this group that caused the clerk of the course Ian Le Page to have to show the red flag. Having completed 2 laps of their first race for the B group riders, which was the first race of the meeting, an overtaking manoeuvre going into the wet bend by Alisha Wild-King saw her take a heavy tumble when things didn’t go to plan resulting in half an hour delay whilst she was attended by the ambulance crew without having to go to hospital. In this group Josh Ballard was leading the way with Luke Bush in a steady second spot whilst Alisha had been battling with rally driver turned sand race chairman turned MX rider Kevin Rumens for the third spot. In the A group there was tremendous battles between Billy Rive & Owen Waddingham for top spot, Billy got them, whilst Mark King & Brad Smith were both in the hunt for third place. Each group having had 2 races on the twisty course it was time to move onto the oval track so with only 16 riders now left running it was decided to put all the riders together to try to make up some of the lost time. Unfortunately this was to cause the second red flag as it was very clear to see the disparity in the speed & riding styles between the two groups as Brad Smith had a coming together with a slower rider on the slip bend having to be taken to hospital with concussion.

Having to adjust to different riding styles Erin Ogier had races on both her 500cc slider machine & on Mark King’s spare Honda 250cc MX bike. For one race at least the 2 sidecars were out racing with father Clint leading the way from son Reece though as Reece improves he will soon be right on Clint’s tail. There were 4 junior sliders out for this meeting on identical bikes with Thomas Vining leading the pack from Lewis Le Blancq& brother’s Charlie & Sam Walker. Ben Le Provost once again won the junior MX class but his only opposition was total newcomer Finn Bogle who was learning how to ride on sand at a steady pace. In their second race Digby Cleal on the smallest bike on the beach at 50cc was a lot closer to Tyler-James Savident whose bike is slightly larger at 65cc.

Only 6 cars came to the line to race as Nigel Ozanne has now prepared his sand racing buggy for speed events taking part on Bank Holiday Monday’s hill climb thus leaving Karl Marshall as the only racing car on the beach. Though the 5 saloons were in three different classes the racing was very competitive with very little difference in performance. Unfortunately a cracked exhaust manifold on Neil Bourgaize’s totally road legal car meant he only did one race as he was concerned with the noise level having to drive the car home after the event. Matthew Board, Eric Trump & Sam De Carteret each won their classes.

Paul Stanford