December 13th, 2018.



Harry Miller produced a fine 13th place finish at the fourth round of the French Sand Championship at Hossegor on Saturday and ended the day as top Brit.

Yamaha-mounted Miller started on the second row of the 160 entries but got stuck behind a fallen rider, leaving him outside the top 50 at the end of lap one. He kept his head and ground out 17 tough laps to finish just one lap down on the leaders by the end of the two-hour race.

Luck was not with the other three British riders who had made the long trip to the surfing town on the south-west coast, near Biarritz.

Sheldon Seal, who came into the race in fourth place in the championship, started the race superbly, moving into the lead by lap three and set the fastest lap of the day on the way. Then a broken gearbox forced him out.

Harry Walker, making his first appearance in this year’s series, put in a solid performance and was one of only six riders to post a lap time under six minutes. However, disaster struck when he ran out of fuel on the very last lap dropping from ninth to 22nd.

Ameelie Miller was ruled out after four laps when her Yamaha unexpectedly ground to halt, with a fuel problem suspected to be the cause.

Victory went to France’s three-time European Champion, Romain Couprie, who saw off a last-lap challenge from fellow countryman, Florian Mangeot, to win by 9.6 seconds.

Couprie, who has won three of the four rounds so far, now leads the series by 123 points from Antoine Cheurlin, who slumped to 41st on Saturday – his worst result of the year.

Results - Hossegor: 1 Romain Couprie, France (Yamaha), 18 laps. 2 Florian Mangeot, France (Yamaha) 18. 3 Benoit Beroudiaux, France (Handy) 18. 4 Mike Van Grinsven, Holland (Honda) 18. 5 Jeremy Forestier, France (Yamaha), 6 Jean Marie Bernede, France (Yamaha). British: 13 Harry Miller (Yamaha) 17. 22 Harry Walker (Yamaha) 17.

Points (after four rounds). 1 Couprie 585, 2 Cheurlin 462, 3 Forestier 453, 4 Vandendijck 415, 5 Bernede 370, 6 Mainini 368. British: 12 Seal 320.

Next round: Grayan-et-L’Hopital, 12th of January.


Pictured: The Fench Sand series is producing some epic racing.