THREE RECORDS FALL DURING FESTIVE FUN
28th December, 2024
Three records were broken during the final sprint of 2024 held by the Jersey Motorcycle & Light Car Club on Saturday 28th December. The weather remained dry throughout the day as a healthy entry of over 40 competitors put their vehicles to the test along the Five Mile Road.
Guernsey's Jez Mann was the first to claim his place in the record books. Aboard his custom built 252cc Lambretta, he beat the previous record in all five of his official timed runs to set a new time of 12.87 seconds in the Scooter Over 250cc class, a huge improvement over the previous record set by Michael Milner a year earlier.
Image - Daniel Drakes
There was a great turnout in the Road Going Series Production 1400cc-2000cc class as 10 drivers all in Mazda MX5s battled each other for top honours of the day. Regularly a popular class at the Bouley Bay Hill Climb due to the Mazda's evenly matched performance and the opportunity for some very close racing, this time the competitors tackled the quarter-mile course. Andrew Simpson took the class win on the day with a time of 15.42 seconds, not far behind in second was Ollie Le Bailly with a time of 15.53 seconds and in third was Dayle Harben with a time of 15.57 seconds respectively.
There was some great duelling in the Rally Cars Unlimited class as both Simon Le Noa and Ross Le Noa set their sights on the December 2015 record of 11.86 seconds set by Dave Oliveira. With both drivers in very capable machines it wasn't long before the nine year old record was under threat. With practice completed, Ross and his 2500cc Ford Escort set a time of 11.87 seconds in the first official run, just one-hundredth off the record and followed it up by beating the record in his next two runs with times of 11.80 and 11.67 seconds. However, not to be outdone by his brother, Simon who was just behind Ross most of the day pulled out all the stops towards the end of the event and in his penultimate run he raced his 2500cc Ford Anglia to the finish line in a time of 11.65 seconds to claim the class record.
Adam Vibert further secured his name in the record books beating his previous record aboard his 550cc Aprilia SXV. Towards the end of the day and with an excellent launch from the standing start, he improved on his own time set three years prior with a new time of 11.57 seconds. This new record also stood as the fastest time of the day, an impressive feat aboard a relatively small capacity machine.
(words by Ryan Hidrio)
