Mar-Train Yamaha’s Dean Harrison dominated the 2015 Steve Henshaw Gold Cup at Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount taking five race wins, including the big race of the weekend and the postponed Cock O’ The North trophy.
The Bradford man signed off on a difficult season by treating his legion of fans to a superlative performance, comfortably winning all four superbike races on his YZF-R1M Yamaha as well as lifting a supersport victory on his R6 machine.
In Saturday’s wet qualifying conditions Harrison put his R1M on the front row in second place for the Cock O’ The North and Senior races whilst he would start seventh for the David Jefferies Supersport races. The twenty six year old could have been forgiven for thinking his recent bad luck was set to continue after a first lap collision forced him to retire from the opening supersport race but that was to be the only blip in an otherwise perfect weekend.
The Cock O’ The North meeting had to be abandoned back in July but Harrison picked up where he left off in the re-run by claiming the title for the third year in a row. After shadowing Lee Johnston and Daley Mathison in the early laps the Yamaha UK man pushed his way into the lead on lap four and pulled away to win by almost eight seconds. Harrison then led the following Senior race from the start, pulling away from Linton and McGuiness before a red flag brought a premature end to proceedings with the result declared.
Sunday’s conditions couldn’t have been more contrasting with blue skies and bright sunshine replacing the sometimes torrential downpours of Saturday. A packed crowd were treated to another dominant display from the Yorkshire man however, who started off by qualifying in second place for the supersport race and on pole for the Gold Cup and Senior races.
Harrison had never won the Gold Cup having missed last year’s event due to injury but he put recent upgrades to the electronics package on his R1M Yamaha to good use by scoring a comfortable eight second victory over Ivan Linton and Lee Johnston. A fierce supersport battle loomed next with Saturday’s victor Lee Johnston but it was the Mar-Train man who came out on top adding a ‘six hundred’ win to his tally for the weekend with a five second win.
The second Senior race completed the weekend and Harrison’s confidence in his new Maxton rear suspension was obvious as he set the fastest lap of the weekend to blitz the field and record a nine second victory and a total of four wins on the YZF-R1M.
“It has been a while since we’ve had a weekend like that, apart from the coming together in the first 600cc race that was a perfect weekend. The R1M has come on leaps and bounds thanks to the Maxton rear shock and new electronics, it’s just a different bike to ride,” said Harrison.
“We had every condition thrown at us but the bikes were mega and I was able to just control the races. It’s nice to finish off my year with Mar-Train like that, they’ve put so much work in all year and deserved a good weekend. Thanks to all the fans who braved Saturday’s weather, it’s always a great event, brilliant to get the Cock O’ The North again and really chuffed to lift the Gold Cup.”
