'Mr Whippy' clocks new record in brother's car

MR WHIPPY could have clutched an ice cream out of a spectator's hand as he crossed the finishing line at the Vazon Sprint at 109mph in his younger brother's car. Instead Graham Mourant listened for the Leeds United football result for brother Keith as he smashed a record over the quarter-mile course.

'I was highly delighted but felt a bit awful to beat him and take the glory in his own car but he was fine and happy enough. It's such a nice car it did not even seem that fast. It seemed that if someone had passed me an ice cream over the sea wall I could have grabbed it,' he said.

Mourant, 54, who has been sprinting for 20 years in various road-going cars and is commonly known within the sport as 'Whippy', demolished the former record of 15.32sec., set in April 2003 by Dale Crowsley in the production saloons, 1,801cc and over, class.

He eclipsed it on his practice run and on all five real runs - with his new best mark being 14.01sec. on the penultimate one.

'I was listening to the Leeds result for my brother as I was going over the line at 109mph. They won so they had that glory,' he joked.

'I normally drive a single-seater racing car but I damaged the sprockets at the last hill climb so decided to put my brother's car in,' he said.

Other records tumbled in the latest meet on Saturday.

Mark Stanford set a new best time of 12.54sec. in his new Odd Jobs Racing Megabusa in the GT and modified sports cars up to 1,600cc class.

'In my heart of hearts I knew it should be capable of beating that time but you never know until the day.'

He saw it as money well spent after having spent £8,500 on his new pride and joy.

His decision to fit a motorcycle engine in the car paid dividends.

Having beaten the previous record of 13.07secs held since June 2005 by Mark Scott, he eclipsed it in practice and on his first three runs before lowering it even further on his fifth and final run.

Stanford, who bought his Westfield kit car only recently, was delighted with its performance.

'I'm really chuffed to bits. I built the car earlier this year and now motorcycle power is the progression in the class and it has fulfilled everything I thought it would.

'It was a well set-up car I bought from the UK that used to do circuit racing,' said Stanford, who works at Gaudion's Camp du Roi Stores.

The car won its championship outright three times racing in the UK and he believes it has the potential to lower the record even further.

'With a new set of tyres and a few modifications to the engine it could go quicker yet,' he said.

Tim Torode set a new record of 11.13sec. in his Wheeler Developments Mallock in the sports libre up to 1,600cc class, surpassing the previous best of 11.43secs set by Terry de la Mare in April.

'It's only the second time in the car - I bought it a few months ago from Jersey,' he revealed.

'It cost me less than the one I was going to build.'

'The last time I used it in the rain I did 11.87sec. so I thought there would be half-a-second off in the dry,' he said.

'I'm very happy. It's great to change classes because I have always been in saloons for about 12 years. It's a new challenge getting a competitive class with people pushing you to the limit,' he said.

He is hoping to race it to a finish in the high 10 seconds.

'You always have to have a high aim.'

Other records also fell.

Steven Finch set a new best of 13.97sec., easily beating Tim Julie's April 2006 best of 15.51sec., in his Lotus Exige in the production saloons 1,401cc to 1,800cc class.

Alison Baudains' time of 15.26sec. in her Honda Prelude V-tec easily beat the previous best of 16.76sec. set by Steve Marquis in September 20004 in the sand-racing production saloons class.

Timekeeper Roger King said: 'Everything has gone to plan, with nothing out of the ordinary. The weather has been ideal with no real wind.'