Classic Bike Summertime at the Seaside

June Cock o’ The North | June 21-22 | Oliver’s Mount circuit, Scarborough
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Summertime
at the seaside
Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount circuit is one of the most
spectacular and historic in the UK. Former Scarborough
race winner Peter Boast takes us on a tour, as we look
forward to the Cock o’ The North race meeting in June
Starter’s orders
As a rider, you were aware of the crowd at Scarborough.
You’d pull out of the paddock and you’d see them on the
bankside in front of you, like Cadwell Park on BSB day.
When you lined up on the grid, the track was so narrow
that you’d be almost touching the riders next to you. There
are 23 riders on this grid, and I can see Phil Mellor, Graeme
McGregor and Steve Henshaw in there, so I suppose this
must be 1981 or ’82. It was great if you were on the front
row, but if you were back on the third or fourth row you
thought you’d never find a way through. Where that hay
barn is, there’s now press room and the marshal’s office,
and you can see Fran Cowton, the travelling marshal on a
Suzuki Katana on the left of the picture. I quite like the look
of Eddie Wright’s pick-up truck in the car park, too.
JOHN DENTON
Captions PETER BOAST Photography BAUER AUTOMOTIVE
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Cock o’ The North
Tricky first hairpin
This looks like the first lap of an
open-class race, because Mark
Norman is on a 600, and so is the
second rider (25), but the rider who’s
tucking his front is on a 250 and
number 28 is a Kawasaki ZXR750. The
first lap was always nerve-racking.
If there has been rain overnight, it’d
take a long time for it to dry out – and
this looks wet. You’d go barrelling into
the hairpin and brake as hard as you
dare – but if you go down there’s a
wooden fence to smash into, or you’ll
take another rider out. It looks like
this lot are being cautious. A decent
proddy racer called Vince Field had
brake failure on a GSX-R750 here. He
came wazzing through on his first lap
and couldn’t stop; they had to pull his
bike out of the branches of a tree. The
roadway to the right is the entrance
to the paddock, so it’s a good spot for
doing a plug chop on a two-stroke.
Oliver’s Mount Circuit - 2.43miles
The Café & Memorial
Memorial
Mountside
Hairpin
Back Straight
Mount Hairpin
Jefferies Jump
North
Bottom Straight
Farm Bends
The Esses
Quarry Hill
Start/finish
Sheene’s Rise
Mere Hairpin
In awe of Bob Heath
I can’t believe how much lean Bob Heath’s got on as he goes through the Esses at the top
of the hill; it’s mad. His toes are on the floor and the centre of the Seeley Matchless’ tyre
is just hanging on. That is really impressive. This is a scary part of the track. I’ve seen big
crashes here. You’ve come up the hill and there’s a left-hand kink, then you throw it into the
right, there’s kerbing there now, and you can feel your knee catching the grass. One or two
riders have been through that hedge. Luckily not me. I saw Mark Phillips go through it. From
here, you go onto the back straight which isn’t really straight at all, and is so narrow that you
can’t pass either. You have to respect the other rider and try to outbrake him at the end.
Climbing the hill
Accelerating up the hill after the hairpin is a great feeling, but it can be damp and it’s very easy to highside in the wet, especially
on a two-stroke, so some people can be quite slow. I’ve had to use the grass bank on the right to pass people. Further up the track,
where you can see it disappearing into the trees there’s a slight lip just before the kink and on a modern bike you can get a big
wheelie there. This picture is from about 1974-75, right at the cusp of when the British bikes were about done and TZs were taking
over. No 43 and 59 look like Nortons, but the bloke with the square on his leathers is Ian Martin, Guy’s dad, on a Yamaha TZ700.
Memorial and The Café
This is actually the start of a sequence of corners, starting at The Café (which has a nice view out over the town and to the sea from the other
side). You can’t see the corner till you’re right on it, and you can be quite late on the brakes – it’s a good spot for outbraking. Then you’re into the
corner with your knee on the grass, followed by a flick right past The Memorial, then second left, another corner that is always damp. The Café’s
not open during racing, but Ashley Law told me he crashed there once and landed at the café door. He was just gathering himself together when
he heard barking on the other side of the glass door from a big Alsatian inside trying to get out – it scared him half to death. The second left-hander
after The Memorial has a hedge on the outside with a sheer drop behind it. Jamie Coward crashed there and disappeared through a hole in the
hedge; I’d done three more laps before I saw him managing to climb out again. Anyway, I think that’s David O’Leary leading in this picture.
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Cock o’ The North | June 21-22 | Oliver’s Mount circuit, Scarborough
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Mount Hairpin
This is the exit of the Mount Hairpin, which is also called Drury’s. There was an accident a few years ago when people got hurt, so they keep
spectators further back now. This is one of those corners where you change your line if you are in a gaggle of other riders. It’s very hard to get
around the outside at Scarborough because the track’s so narrow, so you have to block the inside line on corner entry to stop people stuffing it up
the inside. Coming out of the hairpin is tricky, because it tightens up as you go under the trees. Eddie Laycock fell off in front of me here once and
I ran him over, which was unfortunate. Then you’ve got a steep descent, so you’re short-shifting the bike down the hill to the next hairpin. This
picture is from a Formula Two race in the early 1980s, with Rob Brewer on his Honda CBX550-engined bike ahead of Steve Boyes on a 350 Yamaha.
Mountside Hairpin
There’s a bridge before the Mountside Hairpin that I used as a braking marker – just before of just after, depending
on how fast your bike is. And if you’re young and daft, like I once was, you crash here a lot – but it’s a good passing
place if you have the nerve. Once you’re out of the hairpin, you’re giving it full gas down to the jumps. I’ve no idea who
these riders are – the first one is on an LC, which you didn’t really see at Scarborough because you didn’t get club
racing there. Still, somebody’s come along on it and they’re having a go. That’s a great view out over the town to
the Yorkshire Moors and the North Sea, too. Oliver’s Mount is a magic place on a sunny day.
The Jumps
This is Ian Lougher on a 125 at the last
of the jumps coming back towards the
startline, and that might be Robert Dunlop
you can just see behind him. There are two
more jumps before this; one’s mid-corner,
so you take off while you’re cranked over
on the left side of the track and land right
beside the grass on the right. You have to
be so precise – if you get it wrong, you’re
going up the bank. Ian Lougher was superb
round Scarborough, he never made a
mistake. There were only two people I’d
race with round here and feel 100% safe
but still be in awe of how fast they were.
One was Ian, the other was Nick Jefferies.
I had a great race with Nick one year when
he was on the Castrol Honda; he
was so fast and so precise.
There were some riders
where you’d go: ‘Ooh
yer bugger, I don’t
want to go near him,’
there’s no place for
that kind of rider
on a track like this.
See racing at
Scarborough
Cock o’ The North, June 21-22
The first motorcycle races were held at
Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount Circuit in 1946,
and the 2.43-mile parkland circuit it is still one of
the most challenging, spectacular and scenic race
tracks in the UK. There are three race meetings in
2025, kicking off with the Cock o’ The North event
on June 21-22, then the Barry Sheene Classic
Festival on July 19-20 and the Gold Cup on
September 13-14. There are great roads
nearby, so book a B&B and make a
proper weekend of it.
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The Cock o’ The North
This is me coming out of Mountside on my Yamaha OW-01. It’s 1993, the year I was dicing for the
Cock o’ The North title. I’d first come with my mum and dad for family holidays when I was about eight
years old; we’d stay in a guest house and do the seaside things, but my dad would be a track at eight
in the morning. They were huge meetings then, with riders like Agostini and Saarinen. I first raced
there in 1981 on a 350 Ducati in a classic race, then in 1984 I was there for the Gold Cup with a Suzuki
RG500. My first big race and I’m there, on track with Barry Sheene in his last race before he retired. He
even spoke to me in the paddock, I was a bit star struck. I was going good in practice and was running
midfield in the race, with Keith Huewen on the SDC Honda in front, and I thought I could outbrake him
going into Mountside. Turns out I couldn’t, so I crashed and took out Tony Moran. They had to stop the
race, so I wasn’t very popular. By the early ’90s I’d calmed down a bit, and the OW was a lovely bike.
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