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2017 Cock O’ The North: Harrison favourite to clean up

With two weeks having now passed since the conclusion of the Isle of Man TT Races, the road racing season kicks back into life this weekend with the Cock O’ the North trophy races at Scarborough. And having dominated the races around the 2.43-mile woodland circuit for the past 18 months, Dean Harrison will again line up as the clear favourite.

The Silicone Engineering Kawasaki rider won 24 races at Oliver’s Mount in 2016 and opened up his account for 2017 with another dominant performance at the Spring Cup in April and has taken over from Guy Martin as the man to beat. Fresh from yet another highly successful campaign at the TT, the 28-year old lines up in the Superbike and Supersport races with seven of those races on the packed 21-race programme.

With the absence of Dan Hegarty, his stiffest competition is expected to come from regular sparring partner Ivan Lintin on the Dafabet Devitt Racing Kawasaki’s. It wasn’t the best TT for the Bristol-based team so Lintin will be hoping to get back to winning ways although he should be guaranteed at least two of those in the Supertwins races.

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Jamie Coward (Radcliffe Racing) had a superb TT though, with a top ten finish in the Superstock race and a 128mph+ lap in the Senior, so will be a definite contender for honours as will Daley Mathison. The Eddie Stobart Racing rider also enjoyed a good fortnight at the TT, lapping above 127mph on his way to 13th in the Senior TT, and is sure to arrive at Scarborough in confident mood.

James Cowton will be back on the Cowton Racing machines for the weekend with Mick and Mark Goodings, Craig Neve, Davy Morgan, Mark Purslow, Danile Frear, Mike Norbury and Julian Tillotson just some of the other names expected to feature over the two days.

Youngsters Adam McLean and Joey Thompson both made excellent debuts at the TT and will be pushing hard in the Supersport races whilst McLean should be at the forefront in both the 125cc and Supertwins races too. Meanwhile, Thompson will be hoping to grab more race wins on his 250cc Yamaha with team boss Ian Lougher expected to have another run out around the Mount.

David Bell, Paul Owen and Peter Boast should be the pick of the bunch in the Classic Superbike races although the likes of Harrison, Lintin, Cowton and Neve may well use the meeting to gain some valuable track time on their 750cc machines prior to August’s Classic TT.

There are four races on the programme for the Formula Two sidecars with the entry headlined by Dave Molyneux/Dan Sayle who will be looking to get more miles under their belt in preparation for next month’s Southern 100.

Sayle will be hoping to have fully recovered from the chest/rib injuries that affected him in the two TT races with their competition set to include Conrad Harrison/Andy Winkle, Lee Crawford/Patrick Farrance, Steve and Matty Ramsden, Dave Wallis/Scott Hardie, John and Jake Lowther, Dean Lindley/Robert Bell and Greg Lambert/Julie Canipa.

Practice on Saturday is due to get underway at 8.50am with the first of the ten races at 1.30pm. Saturday sees practice from 9am with 11 races on the schedule, the first of which is at 11am.

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