Welsh wizard Ashley Greedy had a weekend to remember at the final round of the FIM Sand Racing World Cup in Portugal at the weekend.
Words: Ben Rumbold. Featured Image: Frederik Herregods
With support from S Briggs Commercials, Ashley has been taking on the French CFS Championship since finishing runner-up at the Weston Beach Race to Todd Kellett. The 2019 Weston winner declared on the podium that he wants to prove that 2019 “was no fluke” and is going all-out to get more sand racing practice in before the 2024 event.
The latest excursion was the furthest yet, taking in the Portuguese race with fellow Welshman and former British Championship rider Sion Talbot, who finished 7th at Weston this year. Sion’s sister and brother-in-law drove the bikes last week down to Monte Gordo, right on the southern coast of the country close to the border with Spain, whilst the boys flew to the race factory style on Thursday!
In Saturday’s race Ash finished a solid 6th, whilst Sion went for a no-pit-stop race and ran out of fuel with 20 minutes to go! On Sunday, Ash was running in 8th but “the bike wasn’t running right from the start so I think the clutch was cooked, split the plate like it did Saturday but it must have gone into the engine. I was nursing it to try and finish, dropped to 10th, then with half a lap to go she died.”
Sion did see the finish line flag this time, taking 7th spot and claiming a solitary Championship point for his overall result of 15th, one behind Ashley! Despite the disappointment, they thoroughly enjoyed the experience: “We’re learning more every race we do, here and in France, so we’ll be doing the next two French CFS rounds and Le Touquet as well, although I’ll miss one due to previous commitments. Next year we will hopefully have more knowledge and be ready to go for the full Beach Race series.”
We look forward to following Ashley’s progress in the CFS series and seeing the results of his progress on Weston sea front next October. Ash will also be competing in the Arenacross Tour which starts in Manchester on the 6th of January.