Sand Racing Report Saturday 6^Th May 2023

The beach conditions had an effect on the lay out of the track for the forth meeting of the season. The pits usually situated over the wall from Vista’s were moved southwards almost to the wooden groynes as the sand at this end of the beach was full of pot holes & unsafe to race on. This meant a shorter course was moved northwards pass the slip way as the wet bend was now approx. half way down the normal top straight. Once the officials had worked out where it was safe to place the bike & car start lines racing commenced a little later than planned.

Only six riders competed in the MX A group & once again it was Owen Waddingham that led the way from Cory Leggett. Paul Le Messurier & Marcus Crittell were vying for third spot whilst Ian Le Messurier & Kevin Rumens were swapping fifth & sixth places. Eight riders took to the track in MX B & it was Josh Le Cras on Billy Russell’s Honda that lead the way whilst there were terrific battles between Olly Driscoll, Harry Fleet & Ben Le Prevost for second & third places. Though Olly thought he had second in the final oval championship race he had been spotted cutting the wet corner by using the junior track so was pushed back to forth place thus allowing Alisha Wild King to claim a third place. Making his appearance for the second time was this year’s sand race chairman James Savident who was using Luke Bush’s Kawasaki. As per usual both these class’s ended their day with a handicap race in which Gemma Le Page collects a second trophy this season whist Kevin Rumens claims his first.

Seven cars came out to practice but only six got to race as Jamie Queripel’s Audi suffered a head gasket failure. Though Karl Marshall’s buggy has the smallest engine it is the lightest & fastest car on track & even Gary or Jamie Le Page’s modified Honda could not match the pace Karl was setting though a broken exhaust did not help matters. The real competition was between the four far more standard saloons the Focus’s of Steve Marquis & Matthew Board, the Audi of Andy Rosamond & the Hyundai of Eric Trump but even then they were split into three different classes. Things did not end well for three of them as Andy broke a lower front ball joint, Matthew blow a top rad hose & Eric suffered a split tyre. Sand racing is punishing so there is always something that will go wrong.

Thomas Vining was leader of the pack of four in the junior/intermediate slider class whilst Lewis Le Blanq had to keep a watching eye out for Samuel Walker out on a Sky Team 250cc which ran without any problems. With the juniors also out on a smaller course it meant that Digby Cleal the youngest in this class did not get lapped in any race so completed full race distances.

Tyler-James Savident is only competing against himself & the track as of yet he has no competition in the junior MX class. Making a welcome return to slider racing was Erin Ogier who should have been up against Bob Teed but as he retired during the first race it was only Erin that took any race wins using her 500cc twice & a 250cc once.

Paul Stanford