BIGGER AND BETTER WESTON TRACK
This year’s Weston Beach Race circuit will, once again, be designed and implemented by track-building maestro and part-time guitar guru, Justin Barclay.
Barclay built the infamous Weston track for the first time in 2009, combining the traditional dunes course with a motocross section close to the main spectator areas. The new track layout promoted close racing, while also avoiding the bottlenecks that are almost inevitable when 1000 riders take to the course on race day.
This year's track will be similar in design, with a few minor changes. The start finish straight will be extended by a third of a mile, and the first turn will be considerably widened and reduced in circumference to become more of a sweeping corner. The opening part of the dunes course proper will also be widened. All the changes are designed to reduce even further the 'traffic jams' at the start of the race, as more than 1000 competitors blast their way towards the first set of dunes.
Event organiser RHL Activities has built up a relationship throughout the last two years with Barclay, who also masterminded the British Motocross Grand Prix track at Mallory Park in 2008 and 2009. The track-expert has had involvement with many of the leading circuits in the UK, as well as the Grand Prix tracks in South Africa and Ireland.
"The Weston Beach Race is a very special event, and I'm looking forward to having an involvement again this year," declared Barclay. "The track layout we designed last year worked pretty well, but we identified a number of areas where we could improve things, especially at the start. We'll be making a few tweaks to the start finish straight, by making it slightly longer, and also to the section from the first turn to the start of the dunes course. This will all be widened, to allow more bikes through at the start. As the riders get further into the dunes then the width will reduce in order to funnel them onto the course. We've pretty sure these changes will considerably easr the major bottleneck we get at the start each year. This year has been a busy one for me, but the Weston Beach Race is the ideal end to a hectic season."
The track construction will take almost a week to complete, and Barclay will also be responsible for moving the vast amounts of sand to return the beach back to its original state following the race.
"Justin is a well established track builder now, and he has done a great job for RHL Activities over the past two years, both with the Weston Beach Race and the British Motocross Grand Prix at Mallory Park," said Gareth Hockey, Director of RHL Activities Limited. "We had a meeting with Rupert Coppin from Roberts Plant and Hew Watkins, the Clerk of the Course, and decided to make some fairly substantial changes to the first part of the course, to try and reduce the bottlenecks at the start of the race. Justin has now come up with a track design that we think will work very well, and will help us move the event up yet another notch in terms of close racing. We're certainly looking forward to working with Justin again at this exciting, but unusual, event."
Posted: 15 Sep 2009