This Is Guernsey

By Rob Batiste

When men were men and you could not only race on the Vazon sands without a helmet, but also smoke at the same time. (0603258)

THE word did not have the same connotations back in the conservatively grey days of 1958. But dope was in short supply at the big July sand race meeting of 50 years ago and the Evening Press made a big issue of it when covering the Vazon meeting, which would have drawn as big a crowd as anything seen that summer in local sport.

The ‘dope’ which they referred to was the special fuel the racers put into their machines and the fact that there was not too much about was down to the dock strike in the UK.

The greats of that mid-summer day, men such as Len Le Picq, Jonny Machon and Dick Henry, were given extra time to adjust their machines to the alternative fuel, but the report remarks on no noticeable lack of speed or excitement.

Sand racing legend Bill Green, by now commentating, remarked that in 40 years of racing he’d seldom seen the sands looking better and they certainly suited Le Picq on his 500cc JAP, who won the big over 350s 10-lapper from Machon on his Triumph 500.

Five years earlier, there was nobody quicker on two wheels than Ken Tostevin, who dominated the up to 350s section, while Green was on top in the over 350s.

Tostevin had burst on the sand racing scene a year earlier, but he was to leave them for much of the decade as he concentrated on a highly-successful road-racing career.

This week, he recalled through hazy memories, his sand career.

‘It was 52 when I started and it was something I had been eager to do.

‘It was better to speed on the beach than on the roads.’

Who were his big rivals?

‘There were quite a few very good riders. The likes of Dick Henry, Jimmy Lanyon, Bernie Lavenne, ‘Jigger’ Giles and ‘Chick’ Robilliard.’

The first post-war meeting had been staged five years before that on 29 July 1948 to be precise.

Thousands lined the sea wall – one paper approximated 4,000 – and while Green, in his famous yellow-and-black AJS sweater, and Jim Lanyon shone on the bikes, the top drivers were Dave Bougourd and Bob Davey.

The meeting featured a few spills, none more spectacular than the one that saw George Clark overturn his 1934 Singer.

Green scored a great win in the lap scratch race, clocking 8min. 5.6sec. for the distance, but when he suffered mechanical problems in the 15-lap handicap, debutant Lanyon took advantage.

By then end of the 1948 season Lanyon was the main man in the scratch races, too.

Incredibly, 6,000 was the  estimated audience for the late September meeting which included a Le Mans type run to the start for the five-lap scratch cars race. E. N. ‘Ernie’ Gavey was second to Lanyon on the big bikes that day.

Article posted on 19th July, 2008 - 9.29am