IN YOUR FACE!

While Storm Amy did its best to scupper the Weston Beach Race, a schedule adjustment gave as many as 100,000 spectators the usual sandy spectacle of motorcycle mayhem

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“Absolute chaos. I’ve never seen anything like it.” That’s ace photographer Jayson Fong’s verdict after we sent him west for a special commission: to capture the madcap Weston Beach Race.

First run in 1983, the event in Weston-super-Mare is an annual highlight of the UK’s motorcycle off-road calendar and attracts hundreds of riders of all ages and experience, plus thousands of spectators. The races are held on a six-mile circuit made up of a flat-out blast along the beach, before riders turn back across a tough course pockmarked by man-made dunes.

Run on the first weekend of October, Storm Amy played havoc this year and caused the Saturday races to be cancelled. But after rebuilding the course overnight, organiser RHL Activities was relieved to find Sunday dawning under clear blue skies. The schedule was compressed for all classes to squeeze in their races, with the main Solo event cut in half from three hours to a still gruelling hour and a half.

“It’s Wild West stuff - just bonkers,” says our man Fong. “The sheer number of people and bikes in one space... You’ll have some at the bottom of a dune waiting to go, then you’ll have some pro who just doesn’t stop and keeps going up the dune at full speed.