June 14th, 2018.



Just three Brits made the trip over to France last weekend for the mid-summer Loon Plage Beach Race, near Dunkirk, and all were rewarded with a finish, including a strong second place for Sheldon Seal.

Seal and his Husky-powered YFZ Yamaha split Jeremy Forestier from France and Belgium’s Auke Theuninck at the end of the three-hour, incident-packed race.

At one point Seal was challenging for the lead when his left front Fox shock blew its seals. An emergency pit stop resulted in him being loaned a PEP from a broken down machine, allowing him to continue with uneven shocks, but he still managed to claw his way back up to second place at the flag!

“Forestier and Theuninck are both previous Le Touquet winners, so I was in good company on the podium,” said a delighted Seal. “It was also good to get a finish on the hybrid and we are now getting to the bottom of the teething problems that occurred when we first built it.”

Scots John Mitchell and Davis Vass also made the long trip south, picking up Seal on the way, and were rewarded with good finishes. A rusty Mitchell ended up just off the podium in an excellent fourth spot while Vass claimed a strong 16th place.

Mitchell was especially pleased to finish after rebuilding his ageing British Championship-winning Yamaha with standard parts after a blow-up at Le Touquet earlier this year caused by a failed water pump.

“For the first 45mins or so the race track was smooth and flat out, so I was getting overtaken by more powerful bikes,” admitted Mitchell. “As usual, the bike really started working and handling well towards the end as the track got rougher and I had a good six or seven lap battle with Theuninck, who eventually finished third. Power doesn't matter so much when it's this rough.”


Pictured: Sheldon Seal in action at Loon Plage with matching shocks. Picture credit Gwen Photo