Mitchell does Dunkirk
By TMX Archives on 31st Jan 07
With the Le Touquet 3 hourr beach race set for February 10th a few brave British soliders braved the arctic conditions to get some sand training in at the poular Dunkirk complex in northen France.
The facility is just 30 mins from Calais ferry terminal & has two tracks with one being specificlay designed for quads. The lap is about 3 minutes and includes jumps, woops etc. The track is deep sand, which after a few hours roughs up pretty badly and so is ideal for training. There are showers on site & the track is regularly graded, all for the amazing cost of just 10 euros per day.
We were lucky enough to get John Mitchell to come & train us and show us how it should be done. John had the fastest lap times over the two days putting in 2:28s lap after lap on his ATV World Yamaha, and beating all the French & Dutch riders who were there.
When you spend three days with John, you get to find out why he is British Champion. His commitment to fitness & determination to win is so impressive, he also spent valuble time with us giviing his racing tips for on & off the track, plus quad set-up & fitness suggestions.
Stef Murphy (Anderson ATV Suzuki) was training with Paul Holmes (Honda), as the two of them are doubling-up for Le Touquet & Paul needed bike time on a Suzuki.
Ricky Tordoff was spending the two days setting up his new Anderson ATV Suzuki suspension ready for the season.
Stuart Gubbins (Yamaha) & Chris Murphy (Honda) battled it out in their usual way, with Neal Read (Honda) joining in the old boys club.
The biggest suprise was Liam Cater (Yamaha) who was riding like a balistic missile. I don't know what's happened to him, but he sure looked so much stronger & confident on his quad this year.