THE latest sand racing meeting was mainly for the Condor Ferries Sand Ace Championship but other classes were included in the programme to show the variety of competitors who take part. Though the number of races and laps per race had been reduced, the competition was as fierce as ever to the extent that the cars produced three exciting races.
In the first, Mark Ozanne, out in a freshly painted 3,600cc Jaguar XJS, was shown the black flag (brought in to speak to the clerk of the course) after only the first lap for pushing out newcomer Douglas Le Fevre, in a two tone Honda CRX, along the top straight.
The latter only managed to stop just before collecting one of the speaker stands at the top of the beach before rejoining the race.
Meanwhile, the only racing car yet to appear this season was showing the saloons the way around the course, even in these shortened races, and was able to lap the slower competitors.
The red flag (stop racing - serious incident) was out in the second race before the end of lap one.
A multiple accident had occurred in the wet bend, with Martin Dorey having been spun and Shaun Leigh slammed into on the driver’s side.
Both Eric Trump and Jamie Lucas luckily escaped without injury but with a written off car while the others managed to continue racing after bodywork repairs.
The third race ran without any fun although Trevor Le Page broke a drive shaft on his Mazda on the final lap, thus allowing debutant Le Fevre to take his first win.
Come the fourth and final race and again the red flag had to be brought out after four laps after Leigh and Lucas had a coming-together and stopped on the course in the wet bend.
In the junior section, Chip Le Page was again in dominant form among the usual five riders as Elliot Bates was suffering carburettor problems on his bike to the extent that in the first championship race he was beaten to second place by his brother, Freddie.
Then, in the first scratch race, Elliot was overtaken by both his younger brothers and Dean Chandler.
After some speedy pit work by his dad, the bike was much better in the final two races.
Once again the two cadets had some close races with both riders taking a win apiece in the championship.
Article posted on 6th July, 2006 - 12.00am
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