Sand-ace Queripel adds another crown to his CV

By Rob Batiste

Daniel Winterton (12) exits the wet bend at speed with no brakes to find a slowing Anthony Bougourd in his path. Quick reactions and skill somehow avoided contact. (Pictures by Andrew Le Poidevin)

THE two most sought after trophies were on the agenda at Sunday’s sand-race meeting.
For the car drivers there was the challenge of making their vehicles last for 20 laps to claim the Victoria Trophy, which is more than twice the distance of their normal races, while the bike boys were racing to be crowned King of the Beach.
Beside those races, there was the usual mix of championship and other ongoing trophy races but with no juniors on this programme – all racing in Jersey – there was little time between races for any repairs.
After a delayed start and practice on a grey day, the first race was red flagged after two laps as Ricky Le Cheminant, in his Formula Kawasaki single seater style racing car, spun in the wet bend and got stuck in a hole in the sand. With little body clearance, he could not move without being towed out.
He was able to start the second race but broke a drive shaft on the pretty little car.
In the next race for production saloons, Doug Le Fevre, who had had to rebuild the front suspension after it had collapsed two meetings ago, also got no further than the wet bend before a CV joint broke.
After a couple more races it was the big one with every car that was still running out on the start line.
First man away, Graham Jehan, in the oldest car present, a Mk1 Mini fitted with a 1,275 motor, had close to a two-lap lead before the next group of drivers were sent on their way with the quicker cars having to wait a further two laps before they could start.
As their fuel tanks were not big enough to hold enough fuel for the whole race, both Ian Shorto and Trevor Le Page had to make pit stops, which dropped them out of the running,
Meanwhile Jehan was still pacing his way around the track and although four other cars got onto the same lap, he held out for a good win for a competitor who has raced this car off and on for many seasons.
The bike boys had two championship races to settle themselves in before their main race of the afternoon.
Stoke-based rider Daniel Winterton was over to defend his title but already we had lost one of the likely contenders for this crown as Mike Clarke, going for a second practice start during practice at the beginning of the meeting, tried this one in second gear.
Unfortunately there was too much power so that the front wheel came up into the air and the bike flipped with Clarke landing heavily on the hard sand.
Although the ambulance was called, he was able to walk into it for a check over. He was left badly bruised.
Come the race it was reigning sand ace champion Anthony Queripel who, having raced quietly in the first two races, took the honours, beating Winterton into second place with Dave Cleal taking third.
The other main challenger, Anthony Bougourd, dropped out with bike problems.
It was then back to normal racing with a couple of flying lap races included for both cars and bikes, definitely a first for the cars.
Unfortunately, by then the two leading cars of Ian Shorto (holed sump) and Trevor Le Page (loose axle) were unable to take part so Simon Carre, in the newly acquired ex Ben Batiste Z Bird, took the win followed by the four-wheel drive saloons of Paul Guymer and John Le Page.
First out for the bikes was the club’s bike captain, Phil Ferbrache, on the only motocross machine present followed by Winterton (who was excluded for running outside of the course) and Bougourd.
The last of the month’s meetings will be held on Saturday 30 August at 11.45am.