THREE records tumbled during the final sprint of 2024 held by the Jersey Motorcycle & Light Car Club on Saturday 28 December.
The weather remained dry throughout the day as a healthy entry of over 40 competitors put their vehicles to the test along the Five Mile Road.
Guernsey’s Jez Mann was the first to claim his place in the record books.
Aboard his custom-built 252cc Lambretta, he beat the previous record in all five of his official timed runs to set a new time of 12.87secs in the Scooter Over 250cc class, a huge improvement over the previous record set by Michael Milner one year prior.
There was a great turnout in the Road Going Series Production 1400cc-2000cc class as ten drivers, all in Mazda MX5s, battled each other for top honours of the day.
Regularly a popular class at the Bouley Bay Hill Climb due to the Mazda’s evenly matched performance and the opportunity for some very close racing, this time the competitors tackled the quarter-mile course.
Andrew Simpson took the class win on the day with a time of 15.42secs, closely followed by Ollie Le Bailly with a time of 15.53secs with Dayle Harben in third with a time of 15.57secs.
There was more great duelling in the Rally Cars Unlimited class as both Simon Le Noa and Ross Le Noa set their sights on the December 2015 record of 11.86secs set by Dave Oliveira.
With both drivers in very capable machines it wasn’t long before the nine-year-old record was under threat.
With practice completed, Ross and his 2500cc Ford Escort set a time of 11.87secs in the first official run, just one-hundredth off the record and followed it up by beating the record in his next two runs with times of 11.80secs and 11.67secs.
However, not to be outdone by his brother, Simon, who was just behind Ross most of the day, pulled out all the stops towards the end of the event and in his penultimate run he raced his 2500cc Ford Anglia to the finish line in a time of 11.65secs to claim the class record.
Adam Vibert further secured his name in the record books beating his previous record aboard his 550cc Aprilia SXV. Towards the end of the day and with an excellent launch from the standing start, he improved on his own time set three years prior with a new time of 11.57secs.
This new record also stood as the fastest time of the day, an impressive feat aboard a relatively small capacity machine.
Sprint action is set to return in 2025, with the first event due to take place on Saturday 15 March.
