WHAT a weekend of motorsport, as the Jersey International Motoring Festival (JIMF) weathered storms to deliver a thrilling show.
“Given everything we had to overcome, I think the event certainly delivered,” said event and marketing coordinator Alex Salmon.
Festivities began with a bang on Thursday, as the Rolling Roadshow showcased a huge array of extraordinary vehicles, from karts to rally cars. Spectators surely were in for a treat, as an explosive James Bond Action Movie Re-enactment, including the iconic Goldfinger DB5, bikes and police Land Rovers got the wheels moving.
After such an opening, what followed was heaven for motor enthusiasts, as a multitude of vehicles roared down Victoria Avenue. Highlights included rapid supermoto bikes wheelying, a fleet of Caterhams and Westfields, as well as some unforgettable rally cars.
The legendary 1984 Jaguar XJR-5 exceeded expectations, with its thunderous V12 engine roaring away, much to the crowds’ delight.
Fellow JEP reporter Hannah Esnouf and I experienced the thrills first hand, taking rides in some pure speed machines to create a highlight of my JEP endeavours thus far. Riding with Alex Salmon in his beautiful Triumph TR7, I was up first, and what an experience it was. The growling engine and pure acceleration, reaching 70mph, added up to a very buzzing passenger.
Esnouf had just as much fun, going full throttle in a kitted out BMW E46 M3, driven by none other than four-time Jersey Rally Champion Chris Le Bonniec. All eyes were on Friday’s popular sprint event, with a full line-up of drivers and riders prepared to push their vehicles to the limit.
Unfortunately, due to horrendous weather, the competition was cut short, as Salmon explained: “The conditions were so bad, you probably wouldn’t drive your road car, let alone a race car. Considering the weather, we had about 1,000-2,000 people lined up along the avenue, which was really nice to see.”
“Before cancelling, we got a practice and official run of about 105 vehicles, as well as Leon Haslam and Tom Booth-Amos finally making their debut on some street bikes, doing wheelies and burnouts, so it was fun.” Despite harsh conditions, action was still full throttle, reaching speeds in excess of 100mph.
Saturday ushered in the Westmount hillclimb, which carried on all the way through the weekend to conclude on Sunday. Spectating on the event’s final day myself, a personal highlight was watching Len Amy’s table-topping green Mallock MK32 tackling the course. That was a proper race car.
No matter what was thrown their way, JIMF’s team pulled out all the stops, with Salmon lauding his team: “What we achieved, given the circumstances, is a testament to the volunteers.”
“There’s many things you can’t account for, loads of moving parts in this event, so of course plans change, and the team did a really good job of managing it.” Sustainable fuel was also used throughout the festival, carving a green future for Jersey motorsport.
Sunday saw the Active Arena act as the festival’s swansong, with a ton of wheelies, burnouts, drifts and, yes, the occasional mad stunt (I’m referring to Matthew Le Brun and the supermoto bikes). You might think I’m exaggerating, but Le Brun was literally standing on the saddle while speeding down the side of People’s Park.
Another highlight was created, as the superbikes finally made an appearance in the arena.
Luckily, we have local speedster George Griffiths on board for some work experience, so he’ll be giving a driver’s perspective on the riveting Active Arena below. Even though the engines have gone silent in this year’s JIMF, don’t worry, as there’s so much motorsport on our doorstep to enjoy.
As a driver on Sunday myself, the day began comfortably early, arriving at the pits at around 6.20am. The massive number of entries on St Aubin’s Inner Road created a bit of a squeeze, but we all got set up from karts down to bikes and cars further down the pits, creating an interesting display for passers-by. Track set up definitely involves the motto “many hands make light work”. It was similar to Sorel, and, thanks to all entrants’ efforts, the tires and sandbags didn’t take long to install.
Demonstrations began with the smaller Bambino and Cadet Karts, then a mixture of myself alongside two other Rotax Max drivers and four Gearbox drivers. At around ten o’clock, the first session began in front of early crowds. The track felt cold and greasy, with the odd bump. I left the pits front of the pack and, apart from being overtaken by top-level local driver Jack Butel in his gearbox kart, it was pretty uneventful. My Junior Max being single gear means I couldn’t ridiculously donut like the gearbox drivers, so instead I drove some relatively pacey laps and had several classic sideways braking moments.
The sessions were spread a bit more than an hour apart so, during the break, I learnt and took up two different, random games of cards in the pits. With absolutely no help at all, I won and happily made a bit of banter out of it. It’s fortunate to be at the closer end of the pit lane, as you see all types of roaring machines pass by, from an abundance of supermotos to the ground-shaking open wheelers and comically shaped-but exceptionally cool-MG Metro 6R4s.
Back to the racing side, our second session turned the pace up a notch. Now came some later braking laps, levelling 65mph but still getting smoked on the back straight by the gearbox karts. The furthest corner joining onto Peirson Road is unseen from the spectators by West Park and causes a severe bounce for something so low to the ground as a kart, with those chunky sandbags being equally unforgiving.
During this break I took some time to savour a lovely pizza bought at the lower park stalls as well as watch some other drivers and riders. At one o’clock, entrants and spectators alike took some time to appreciate the devoted Salmon family, who pour a huge amount of time into organising the festival and local motorsport.
Prior to our final run, grit was laid to soak up multiple fluid spills. However, the karts, unlike motorbikes and cars, still faced a grip hazard. As I followed my fellow Rotax driver Daniel Dubras, he lost all grip and was left as a passenger into the heavy barriers, badly damaging his rear axle. The sand-like material was horrible, as it made its way into your eyes at times.
After I had pulled off to finish, I made sure to watch the screaming historic class. Unfortunately, they too experienced an incident with the sand, which I saw happen from close by. I grabbed a nearby kart trolley to help with the scene, where they all luckily emerged without any issues.
Once the roar of engines had died down and all the equipment had been put away, the festival was once again successful in promoting karting and motorsport, as well as spectator entertainment.
Upcoming Motorsport Events:
- Sprint on the Five Mile Road – Set for 14 June, 10:30am
- Motocross at Sorel Point – Set for 22 June, 10am
- Karting, Championship Round 7 at the Sorel Loop Road – Set for 22 June, 10am
- Sand racing at Millbrook – Set for 28 June, 3pm
