Margate takes shape
By TMX Archives on 5th Mar 09
THE sand on Margate beach is being pushed around and shaped into jumps and whoops by the Ovenden Plant machines in preparation for this weekend's QRA Margate Big Sky Beach-cross.Racing takes place on both Saturday and Sunday and action gets underway at 10am both days. It is totally free to spectate and the backdrop to the action on the beach is a fairground, market stalls and the town of Margate itself. This is the fourth Beach-cross event the QRA has staged in conjunction with Margate Town Partnership and it attracted over 15,000 spectators to the resort last February. Those who do miss this year's edition will be able to catch it on DVD and TV as the whole event is being filmed.
One rider who is never camera shy is Honda-mounted, multi and current British Quad Champion, Paul Winrow, winner of the event back in February 2008. He is still brushing sand off his quad and out of his body after finishing fifth at last weekend's Le Touquet Beach race in France, with 490 riders behind him.
Paul also posted the fastest lap of the gruelling three-hour French event and so will be well tuned in to the hardships of riding in deep sand.
It won't be easy though, the British champion will have several riders gunning for his Margate crown.
Fresh from training in the USA and securing the first domestic championship of 2009, the ACU British Quad Supercross championship at the O2 Arena in London, KTM teamster, Paul Holmes, will be looking to show Winrow that he is on target to fight for the British QX number 1 plate in 2009
Ricky Tordoff will be out for the first of a number of development outings on the ATV World Polaris 450 MXR along with Ben Richmond on the ATV World KTM. These two are no slouches when it comes to racing in sand and the duo from Halifax have the experience to be there when it matters.
The dark horse could well be Winrow's team-mate, Stefan Murphy. Stef was flying at Le Touquet when an almost certain top position was taken from him when mechanical gremlins struck.
In addition to the Adult classes, the 200/250cc Youth Quads join the event and will be taking their first steps on the Kent seaside resort's golden sands.
Ameelie Miller and team-mate Jak Griffiths of Jaks Quads and Connor Langton, Oliver Drabble, Luke Brown, Daniel Lewis and company will all be looking to lift the first Youth title.
There are three class races each day with practise and quad qualifier races on Saturday morning. In addition to the three races in each class on Sunday there will be the ‘Dash for Cash' finals in the Adult Quads and Solos to conclude the weekend.
And that's not all! Organiser Tony Nash has forced me out of retirement again to see if I can manage more than a lap on the QUAD Magazine Project Raptor. He has even given me number ‘0', which is his estimate of my total points score for the weekend!
We'll see Pieman. We'll see...
Event hotline is 07774-434468. See you there.
Pictured is our ancient Quad columnist who astounded everyone at the 2007 Margate Beachcross with a number of amazing holeshots on the then new Polaris 525 IRS. His glory was as short-lived, however, as his stamina and he never finished a race. See him suffer again this weekend...