Girard tops 147mph on record Vazon run
ADAM GIRARD’S hope is that one warm summer’s day in the future he will arrive at Vazon and be welcomed by a force seven tail-wind blowing towards Richmond.
Unlikely perhaps, but the courageous record-breaking motor-cycler says he is as determined as ever to one day erase Colin Le Maitre’s all-time Vazon sprint record which has now stood at 9.37sec. for 14 years.
While Le Maitre joined a small group of Sarnian racers at the highly popular St Goueno Masters Hillclimb in France, Girard was topping 147mph over the finish line as he beat his own big bike class record on his fourth run of the day, clocking a superb 9.48 to take seven-hundredths off the mark he had re-set last summer.
The Honda Fireblade 1000cc rider got six runs in on a warm afternoon which saw a gentle tailwind arrive from the north late in the afternoon.
‘I don’t know how [I got the record]. It wasn’t as if I have changed anything and it wasn’t that much of a tailwind. But it was warm, with plenty of grip and I didn’t have any problems with wheel spinning,’ he said at the end of a day when total entries were disappointingly low.
‘I’m another tenth [of a second] closer. One day perhaps. If I had a strong tailwind I’d do it, I think.’
A faster bike might help too, but Girard said that at this stage there was no point making the investment.
‘At the moment I’m happy and there’s no point spending loads of money until someone starts beating me.
‘I knew it would go well today and saw on the forecast that there was a possibility of a tailwind at around four o’clock. The last time I did the record there was quite a strong tailwind.’
As well as Girard, Craig Bewey delivered his Gilera RS Runner scooter over the finish line in 13.45sec., a whopping half-second inside Jez Mann’s record from 2009.
On four wheels, John Eborall took the sports libre saloon rally cars mark with a 14.18.
