Tim’s mission accomplished
IT HAS taken 27 years for Tim Le Pelley to get his hands on it, but – with tears in his eyes – the popular local racing driver finally has.
There is no more impressive – nor larger – trophy to be won in Guernsey motor racing than the magnificent Paul Le Pelley Memorial Trophy, named after the young driver who died of cancer at the age of 27 in 1991.
It is THE trophy to win and for close to 30 years Tim Le Pelley, Paul’s younger brother, has striven to lift the cup he swore not to touch until the day he won it.
That emotional moment came at St Pierre Park last weekend as he stepped up to receive the points trophy at the annual Guernsey Kart and Motor Club presentation dinner.
And, to make the occasion even more touching and heartfelt, Tim, now 50, was handed the cup by his father, Dave, who had come over from the UK especially for the night.
Everyone present stood to applaud and acknowledge the Le Pelleys’ big moment and having hugged his father, kissed the trophy and lifted it aloft, Tim pointed to the heavens in a ‘that’s for you’ gesture.
‘It was a lot heavier than I imagined,’ said Tim, who had twice finished runner-up and once third.
‘Paul died in June 1991 and he was very popular around the paddock, especially as he was an engineering techno-phobe.
‘When he died a collection was taken and with that money we, as a family, decided to do the trophies, which are won for the most points gained over nine hill and sprint events over the whole season.
‘From day one I set out to win it – it was my mission to pick it up one day, but I said I would not touch any of them [there are separate cups for first, second and third] until I actually won one of them.’
Father Dave, who followed Paul into motor racing, won the trophy twice, in successive seasons, 20 years ago, but previously the closest Tim had come to earning it was in finishing runner-up to John Dunne.
‘To lose to John, I knew I was driving very well and it gave me encouragement,’ said the new champion.
After taking a year out from competition in 2016, Tim returned ‘fresh’ last year and with a new set of tyres on his fast Maguire Stiletto Imp with the Hyabusa 1300 bike engine, he held off the strong challenge of Dan Bichard to win.
‘You have to have the perfect season and you have to be good when you are bad,’ said the 2017 winner of a competition which sees points won and lost dependent on individual performance against the class record.
‘It was lovely for my dad to come over and we had the entire family there,’ said Tim, whose black Imp dates back all the way to 1974 and in another guise raced regularly on Saturday afternoon Grandstand programmes. ‘It’s a beautiful thing to drive,’ said its owner.
The Paul Le Pelley Memorial Trophy is a thing of beauty too.
