Sand Racing Report 13^th August 2022

This was the meeting for the car competitors to shine as after 2 class championship races & 2 other trophy races all of 8 laps they were faced with the task of ending their days racing competing for the precious Victoria Handicap Trophy over a distance of 20 laps, would they & their cars survive. Unfortunately the hot weather, a rough track & close racing in the earlier races took their toll, Steve Marquis out with suspected starter motor failure, Linda Jones out with broken rad mounts & Sophy Harvey having some body damage decided to keep the car intact for forthcoming sprint & hill climb events. This left 5 drivers to do battle with Matthew Board leading the way from a soon to retire Andy Rosamond (car overheating) from Eric Trump who would catch Matthew but not be able to get pass him. Next up was Jamie Le Page in the rapid Honda who was gaining but would eventually have to give up his challenge once 3^rd gear was lost. This just left Karl Marshall who started over 2 laps behind Matthew due to the speed of his car & thought he was catching it looked unlikely that he had enough laps to get the job done that is till it was noticed that Matthew was slowing due to a nearside front puncture & though he pushed on the final lap Karl nipped pass on the slip bend to take a surprised win.

With Billy Russell not present his lead of both of the MX A groups championship races twisty & oval would come under attack as Owen Waddingham took all 5 race wins including their handicap race. He was pushed hard by Jarrod Carrington & Brad Smith who missed out on top placings by a couple of spills & bike problems allowing Cory Leggett to gain some valuable points. Come the end of the day Owen has moved into provisional 1^st place on the twisty course but remains just behind Billy on the Oval one. Leading cricketer & moto cross rider GH Smit was often leading the MX B group riders but did not always gain the best finishing positions again down to spills or bike problems letting Tom Wood, Marcus Crittell & George Bourgaize take the top honours.

With Thomas Vining being out of the island Lewis Le Blanq took all 5 junior/intermediate race wins but was pushed all the way by the duelling Sam Walker & Casey Gallienne whilst youngest rider Digby Cleal on the smaller engine bike keeps plodding away gaining useful experience. Unfortunately Charlie Walker couldn’t get his bike to run. Tyla Cox still having to ride as an Intermediate MX upgraded to a 250cc Honda for this meeting but still found that the more experienced Tyler-James Savident on his 85cc machine was still a hard person to beat only getting the upper hand in the final races.

Paul Stanford.