Weston Beach Race 2007
Words: Ian Vessey's and Ben Falconer's Report. Photos: Andrew Brown, Nick Lord
Updated Results are now here
So much for the perfect Technological solution - Not all the Tags worked perfectly. Martin Kear was shown as only doing One lap, yet Bike and Body said they'ed done 7. Fortunately the Timing team have a backup system and the video evidence brings him back up with our top club riders. The results have now been updated and he's grabbed 434th. I've also just spotted that club member David Pugh-Jones, who helps sponsor the event (Cardiff Volkswagen) urged his son Tom round to 306th on his Yamaha 250 with 8 laps.
The Ben Report
Vess and Aaran finished consecutively out of more than 1000 riders! Shurely shome mishtake.
And they beat some bloke by the name of Paul Edmondson by a lap - I have pictorial evidence of him with a stranded, steaming RM, wondering how on earth he was going to get it up the ramp over the bridge. It looked to us that the lack of rain meant that sand was not dragged on to the bridge and because it was dry the wood was harder, which meant it was very, very slippery. Anyway, all we had to worry about was whether our ice creams would melt in the sunshine, so perhaps Vess could tell us more (we did see you, only a little slower than Ramon). Clearly Knighter and Everts stayed away because they were worried about your assault on Weston aboard the KTM 200.
Here's a few more I picked out too.. ;
- Position/No./Class/Rider/Bike/Town/Laps
- 434 950 S Martin KEAR Honda 250 Lydney 7
- 530 468 S B Ian VESSEY KTM 200 Coleford 7
- 531 231 S Aaran WELLS Honda 250 Coleford 7
- 535 926 S Phillip DELANEY Yamaha 250 Coleford 7
- 601 1096 S Paul WAYCOTT Orange thing! Monmouth 6
- 728 499 S B Stephen HANCOX KTM 200 Cheltenham 5
- 732 518 S B David SMAILES DS Flooring Honda 250 Coleford 5
- 820 269 S John EDMONDS KTM 200 Cheltenham 4
- (Ok, who did we miss?)
The Vess Report
Stayed at the caravan park at Bleadon again this year. Signed-on and scrutineered on Friday at about 2pm - took about a half hour to do the lot - better than queueing in the morning. Then went and did a bit of training in the Queens Arms with the support crew from Dunstable.
Went back in on Saturday on the pushbike to watch the sidecars and quads, then went for a little training ride out to the old fort on Brean Down, followed by some more proper training in the pub back in the Queens Arms were we had an excellent meal and a few beers while we watched England lose to South Africa. On Sunday morning we spent an hour in the traffic queue just to get to park on the beach, but soon met up with Mike Wells in the pits.
There didn't appear to be any rider's briefing, but we eventually got into the Parc Ferme for our bikes, and made our way onto the beach where we found barriers right across the start area.
When these were opened, we were off (there were some red lights - don't know what those were supposed to be for!!)
Half way down the straight two riders came together and a third hit the wreckage. The third man was sent high into the air - bike spinning one way, him the other doing a giant starfish manoeuvre in the air - and I sped between the lot as they crashed to the ground - not a lot you can do when you're flat out on the wet sand.
Around the top bend and into the inevitable queue at the first dune. The worst part of this was the acrid fumes from all those nasty smelly 2strokes!! The side barriers were opened after a while on this and a couple more of the dunes allowing the field to spread out after a while and get going. About half way back to the start I tried to change gear and found ..... nothing ..... no gear lever. Into the pits then to get my spare, and remembered it was in ..... the garage. Bugger. I left Mike with some cash and trickled off on my second lap stuck in first gear. Going up the straight was a bit tedious, and the rest of the lap was somewhat uneventful, but when I returned to the pit, now an hour after the start, Mike has magically conjured up a shiny new lever. Hurrah!
The next three laps went by at a reasonable pace, I ran over one bloke who was foolish enough to fall of right in front of me, took out some barriers at one point when my handlebars got tangled up and got stuck a couple of times in queues by the bridge used by the ambulances. Seems the run-up to the bridge wasn't enough this year, and it did seem to be a bit narrower, which meant if anyone fell off on it, a queue appeared almost straight away.
One final pit stop, and on my sixth lap, there was another of these queues, but I managed to nip up the side of the fallen riders and then proceeded for the next half dozen jumps, all on my own. I have to say that this felt very peculiar - totally on my own on the track with loads of people watching and me thinking "no showing off - you'll crash - take it steady - better to look slow than completely stupid!!" Then the first of the riders to catch me overtook, launching off one of the jumps to pass me at shoulder height - ok - so he made me look stupid anyway! At the end of the next lap the flag was out, the race had been cut short by about an hour. Some say it was because of the problems on the bridge which caused problems for the ambulances. Others say it was because the tide was coming in and lapping at some of the vans.
Including our tranny which had to be towed out as the waves started washing the back doors!!! T said 'What idiot parked it down there?' - I only put it where the marshals told me too!! Most vehicles were moved, but as we left there were still a couple stuck there - not good.
Results are out now on www.wbruk.com if anyone's interested. My gear lever problems cost me a lap or two and dropped me down to 530 - just one place ahead of Aaran Wells - doesn't he look just like his dad? Where were the rest of the Forest mob? Paul Waycott, Martin Kear, Dave Smailes? Any more tales of woe chaps?
Special thanks to Mike for getting me a new lever, and also to Neil, Brown and T for servicing and more importantly, getting the van out of the sea!!