This Is Guernsey

By Aaron Scoones

THE weekend’s motocross two-day event has been hailed as the best ever. Held in glorious sunshine at Pleinmont Point, the meeting was in its third year.

‘It’s been the best two day event we’ve had,’ said Guernsey Kart and Motorcycle Club motocross captain Anyon Robilliard.

‘It’s been great and with great weather as well. I’m really pleased.

‘The event-organising sub-committee and myself have put in a lot of work. Roy Lesbirel and Paul Rouget have done a lot work on the track.

‘It’s a national-level track now with what we’ve done on it.’

The star of the show was undoubtedly Marc Cox, who won the biggest class - the MX2.

The 20-year-old apprentice mechanic, who is also leading the Guernsey Motocross Champion-ship in the class, did not lose all weekend as he took the maximum 500 points from the six races.

‘Brilliant. The weekend has gone really smoothly and it’s the best two-day we’ve had, for sure,’ he said.

‘It was a really good weekend for everyone. They’ve done a lot of changes to the course and it’s come out well.

‘It’s a lot faster and smoother.’

Cox was also keen point out the achievements of 15-year-old Brett Pearce who, on his MX2 debut, came seventh out of 18.

‘The young lad Brett deserves a mention for the way he’s ridden this weekend,’ said Cox.

‘He’s done extremely well.’

Not only was it the first time that Pearce had competed in the MX2 class, but it was the first time that he had ridden the larger bikes.

He turned in a remarkable performance to pick up four second-place finishes behind Cox.

He would have come higher in the standings if it were not for the fact that he did not finish one race due to mechanical failure.

‘It was harder but good fun,’ he said.

‘It is harder riding the bigger bikes but once I got used to it, it was not so hard.’

In the four young classes, Jersey riders took the honours.

In the autos class for six- to seven-year-olds, Jack Galloway was the champion with 177 points.

In the seven to 10-year-old junior class, Ryan Caurel took the top podium spot as he finished ahead of fellow Caesareans Matthew Rayson and Connor Hamon.

For the nine to 12-year-olds small wheel 85 class, Charlie Mills was number one with 180 points as Kieran Gregory took the big wheel 85 class.

But the two Jersey riders bemoaned the fact that the two classes had been split for the Sunday competition after they raced together the day before.

‘It was all right but I preferred when we were together,’ said Gregory, 12, on Sunday.

‘It was harder yesterday because I was battling with Charlie. It was quite a fast track.

‘It’s nice coming over and winning.’

Lastly, in the top MX2 class, there was a real ding-dong between Robilliard and Carl Wallbridge for the gold.

But it was Robilliard who was celebrating at the end as he won the first three races on Saturday and one on Sunday while Wallbridge, who is also known as a combative midfielder for the Priaulx side Rovers, won two.

‘With the pace of Anyon, it was always going to be an uphill struggle,’ said the 28-year-old Wallbridge. ‘He was awesome yesterday and it made it hard for me today. It was a good, fair contest.’