Kasey Watson speeds up Le Val des Terres and finished quickest in the junior Rotax Max karts up to 125cc.

NICK SAUNDERS registered the fastest time of the day at yesterday’s Black Horse Offshore Guernsey Kart & Motor Club hill climb at Le Val des Terres.
The 34 year-old IT worker, competing in the racing cars 1,101cc to 1,600cc class in his Office Solutions Reynick, went up in a time of 30.88sec. on his third run.
Torrential rain during the morning had threatened to ruin the day, but the afternoon’s action took place under a blue sky.
The weather had put off 26 of the 130-odd racers.
But in fact, all the water cleaned the road.
‘It’s been a good day,’ said Saunders.
‘After waking up this morning and driving here there was so much rain, I didn’t think it’d turn out like this. The road was drying really nicely.’
Saunders has had his machine for a year and a half.
It is a Reynard Formula Three chassis with a Hayabusa bike engine.
He believes he was touching 90mph at the top of the hill during his fastest run.
‘The limiter was just beeping,’ he said.
‘The car is going very well. It’s handling very well as well. I’m very happy with it.’
Saunders has picked up another fastest time of the day and that was at a meeting last year when he set a time of 30.24.
He is going to take part in the national hill climb round on Le Val des Terres in mid-July.
‘I’m hoping with some help from the sponsor to get some new tyres and I’d like a 29secs,’ he said.
‘That’s the ultimate aim. We shall see.’
The closest fought class was the sand racing non-transaxle.
Peter Jory in his Chevrolet Special held the lead until the last run before Mark King took the honours with a time of 33.04.
However, Jory did not seem too downhearted afterwards.
‘It was close as always. It’s the best class,’ he said.
‘I was leading it with one run to go, but it’s never over until after the last run.’
King was a happy man with his day. The 38-year-old holds the club’s class record with a time of 32.33 set in May 2006.
And he has seen Jory and Scott Rayson, who came third in class yesterday, catch up with him.
‘It has been closer in the last year or so as they’ve started to go quicker,’ he said.
‘Normally it’s pretty good racing. The road was not been too bad on the last run but I was still a bit cautious, as it was a bit slippery.
‘But it was still pretty grippy, to be fair.’
Despite the conditions with the rain there were no serious events until the fourth and last run of the day when Michael Neves’s Mallock crashed into the wall in the tunnel section of the course.
He totally smashed the front end and the front left wheel of the car.
He was clearly in some discomfort with an injured right shoulder and was looking to go to hospital.
The smash spewed oil, coolant and brake fluid across the road.
The meeting came to an end soon afterwards with the competitors happy to call it a day.
‘The back end slid out,’ said Neves.
‘It was in the tunnel and it was wet because the sun could not dry it.’