SunArisen Posted June 25, 2012 Report Share Posted June 25, 2012 The Sand Ace meeting took place at Vazon Bay, Guernsey, Saturday 23rd June. It was the first time in 20 years that the ACU British Championship was held and the first time the Sand Ace has achieved that status. The organising club, the Guernsey Motor Cycle & Car Club organised a reception at Castle Cornet in Town on Friday night immediately after the Condor Express arrived with the last of the competitors. After the reception I went to the GMCC Club House with the former treasurer of the GMCCC who is an old friend and who I was staying with. Racing began just after 2pm as the tide dropped and was over at about 5.45 just as the tide closed in. There were 32 competitors with 64-year old Club President Bill Cohu the oldest. The 'A' Final for the title was won by Danny Warwick with Jersey's Marcus Bisson second, five-time Sand Ace winner Mitch Godden third and Harland Cook fourth. Consolation places went to Paul Evitts fifth, Martin Sturgeon sixth, and local rider Anthony Bougourd seventh. Expected front runner Steve Daw fell on the second bend of the first start and was excluded. Danny only dropped two points in the heats, finishing second in his third ride. Points scoring in each race was 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. For the first time the Sand Ace incorporated 1000cc sidecars after a three machine trial last year, with Rob Wilson/Terry Saunders the Championship winners, Mark Cossar/Carl Blyth second and Matt Tyrrell/Mark Courtney (no relation) third. Consolation places to Neil Owen/Wayne Rickards fourth, Neil Owen/Wayne Rickards fifth with Gareth & Wayne Winterburn pulling up. Double World Sidecar Champ Mick Headland and passenger Gareth Little failed to qualify for the final as did Peter Lloyd/Daryl Whetstone (AKA Team Orient Express). Video of the event . An after the event party and BBQ was held at the King George V Cricket Club. There was a massive crowd on the sea wall at Vazon Bay, believed by the organisers to be the biggest turnout yet. Pics here courtesy of my friend Andrew Le Poidevin. He had a busy weekend as you will see from his site. I throroughly enjoyed the entire weekend and even turned out at the local kart track around Belvdere Warriors FC pitch on Sunday morning where several of the Sand Ace marshals also turned out to flag what was a cadet meeting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhidassa Posted June 25, 2012 Report Share Posted June 25, 2012 First time watching sand racing. Will be returning next year; looking forward to it. May make more of a weekend of it next year rather than a day verging on 24 hours long with an hours nap! Very exciting stuff though, if I'm honest I enjoyed it more than I've enjoyed my speedway lately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunArisen Posted June 25, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2012 (edited) Glad you enjoyed it Rhidassa. You must have taken up the Condor Ferries special offer via the fastcat. I would try to make a weekend of it next time but Guernsey is not a cheap place to stay! Camping the best option and some of the teams camped in club members gardens which is what some people will do for the hillclimb nationals at Val des Terres next month. I am very fortunate in knowing so many of the GMCCC as i have been going there for many years and we host some of them when they come to mainland events. I intend to go next year pending the calendar which is influenced by the spring and neep tides. Here is the piece from Channel TV, spot the major mistake where very annoyingly Danny doesn't get a mention and they seem to think that Mitch won it. Strange as they remained to the end. My interview survived the editing though :-x Good piece in the Guernsey Post this morning which I got whilst at the airport. Lots of good pics from Andy Le Poidevin. Edited June 25, 2012 by SunArisen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsloes 1928 nearly Posted June 26, 2012 Report Share Posted June 26, 2012 Well done to Danny! For once it's a good thing to say, Life's A Beach..!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhidassa Posted June 26, 2012 Report Share Posted June 26, 2012 (edited) We had the foot passenger offer. Next year we may look at staying I think - I'll probably enjoy it even more if I'm not fresh off a horrible ferry ride! Hopefully, we'll be able to find someone to stay with or somewhere to camp. Isle of Wight incidentally spoke to Danny about his win - here"]http://www.iowisland...e2012.html (scroll down a little bit). Another news article from This is Guernsey - here"]http://www.thisisgue...-to-vazon/ Edited June 26, 2012 by rhidassa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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