Early on Friday morning we followed our Tom Tom GPS and eventually it stated “you have arrived at your destination” and before us was the beautiful beach of Pentrez!We spent most of the day testing on the beach in the glorious sun to get a good set up for the race. The difficult decision was whether to run disc`s or bigfoot lights so we sorted both and decided to make our decision in the morning.The beach in the morning was very wet and the wind was light so it was decided that Chris would start with the 14m on disc`s.Chris was in 2nd place on the first lap when the wind disappeared completely and unfortunately leaving Chris with a kite in the water.The race officials cancelled the race and we waited for the wind to pick up for a restart.

1hr or so later a new start time was given and Chris went back out with the 12m in much more wind.It wasn`t the best of starts and Chris took some time to past the pilots in front by the time he got to second place the leader had a good lead mainly because he had a clear track for so long. After an hr the wind had picked up and Chris was starting to struggle with being overpowered and was getting caught by the 3rd place man so he gave me the signal to change and out I went with the 12m.

The good news was that all teams changed drivers at about the same time and our slick pit work narrowed the gap to first by a considerable margin. I was soon able to take the lead but then the wind started to drop and having been out for only ½ an hour I decided to come and change to the 14m it seemed sensible because if the wind picked back up I was sure I could hold on to it for a while. It worked well for the next ½ and I was able to extend our lead a little more.

Then the wind really started to blow again and I gave Chris the signal to change.Meanwhile in the technical zone Chris had swapped wheels because the beach was now near dry.We had a super slick change and Chris was off with the 12m and a better buggy set up. Now he was really fast and able to put us a lap up very quickly. Half an hour later the wind was dropping fast and I had the 14m ready for him but the wind had dropped to almost nothing as Chris approached the start finish line and the green flag came out signalling the last lap! All Chris now had to do was hold it together in the light fickle winds to the chequered flag and we would be victorious. There was nothing more I could do but watch the last agonising lap as Chris struggled up wind, if he dropped it that would be it! As he rounded the last mark and was moving nicely to the finish line I breathed a sigh of relief and ran down to congratulate him as he took the flag!

We had a great time at the event and the party afterwards, all the French pilots made us feel exceptionally welcome and I recommend going to anyone who wants to do a good fun race with a friend.

Gray

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