Practice commenced at 9am in overcast and wet conditions and was eventually held up for just over an hour because of standing water, thankfully the rained cleared and qualifying commenced at 11.15 and the first race was underway only 40 minutes later than planned.

Then following the Sidecar race a major problem occurred in the form of a massive oil spill spreading from the bottom of Jefferies jumps into the Farm bends, the Marshal’s worked hard to resolve the problem but to no avail and the Fire Service was called upon to remove the offending material. Sadly, time was running out and the Clerk of the Course after consulting the rider’s had no other option than to abandon the reminder of the meeting due to safety reasons – rider safety is the absolute priority.

But we did have some brilliant racing the track dried quickly and each class got one race – Ivan Lintin got the hole-shot on the RC Express Kawasaki 1000 in the Senior race he led for three laps before being over hauled by Dean Harrison on the Martrain Yamaha. Deano went on to win by almost five and a half seconds, Lintin held on to second with Lee Johnston (East Coast Racing BMW) third and gets my prize for the best wheelie of the day! Birthday boy Daley Mathison was fourth, James Cowton fifth and Mick Goodings sixth.

Harrison held a start to finish victory in a fast and furious Junior 600 race, Lintin was a close second until he overcooked it at Mountside on the final lap slipping off uninjured at Mountside hairpin. Johnston rode a blinder setting a new lap record 1m 46.540s – 82.110mph and snatching a well deserved second place with Tom Weedon third and Daley Mathison fourth, while Dave Hewson and Mick Goodings completed the top six. James Cowton parted company with his Honda exiting Farm bends – luckily rider and machine were none the worse for the tumble!

Cowton took the early lead in the Super Lightweight race but after two laps the Stewart Smith 650 was demoted to second by the flying RC Express Kawasaki of Ivan Lintin who went on to take victory by just over 24seconds, Cowton held on to second with Jamie Coward third followed by Rhys Hardisty.
Alistair Haworth finished well ahead of Dan Frear in the Lightweight class with Tony Flinton third and David Murphy Fourth.
Dave Bell got off to good start in the Classic F1 race but was soon caught and passed by Jamie Coward who went on to take victory by 33 seconds, Bell held on to second with Paul Coward third, while Paul Owen beat Rhys Hardisty to the chequered flag in the Classic F2 class.

Ian and Carl Bell set the pace in the sidecar race clocking up another victory ahead of Conrad Harrison/Lee Patterson with Dean Lindley/ Robert Bell third.

“That’s a shame today, I feel for the organisers and fans but really disappointing from our point of view. Kind of typical of my luck this year that as soon as everything seems to be going right they cancel the racing! The bikes were brilliant, I knew I had six races ahead so it was just steady away and build up the speed gradually,” said Harrison.

“I sat behind Ivan in the Senior race but knew I could go quicker so pushed on and pulled away for a good win on the R1M. The Junior race was good fun, again I just increased the pace a little each lap and eventually Ivan had an off which left me clear to win from Lee.

“We made a small change on the big bike for the feature race to help it over the jumps and I’m confident we could have got some more wins but we don’t have long to wait for Armoy so we will try again there.”

Results:

Auto 66 – Cock O’The North, Oliver’s Mount, 18 - 19 July

SUNDAY:

SUPER LIGHTWEIGHTS &
LIGHTWEIGHTS

Race 1 – 1^st
Leg – 8 Laps:

1
A Haworth (Yamaha) 16m 41.818s, 2 D Frear, 3 T Flinton, 4 D Murphy.

1
I Lintin (Kawasaki) 15m 34.257s, 2 J Cowton, 3 J Coward, 4 R Hardisty, 5 N
Anderson,

6
P Gartland, 7 P Holmes, 8 S Smith.

SENIOR

Race 2 – 1^st
Leg – 8 Laps

1
D Harrison (Yamaha) 14m 35.193s, 2 I Lintin, 3 L Johnston, 4 D Mathison, 5 J
Cowton,

6
M Goodings, 7 M Goodings, 8 D Cooper, 9 D Hewson, 10 J Tillotson, 11 R
Connolly,

12
A Sellars, 13 M Coggon.

CLASSIC F1 & F2

Race 3 – 1^st
Leg – 8 Laps:

1
J Coward (Kawasaki) 15m 32.138s, 2 D Bell, 3 P Coward.

1
P Owen (Honda) 16m 14.103s, 2 R Hardisty, 3 P Holmes, 4 R Tulett.

JUNIOR

Race 4 – 1^st
Leg - 6 Laps:

1
D Harrison (Yamaha) 10m 51.146s, 2 L Johnston, 3 T Weeden , 4 D Mathison, 5 D
Hewson,

6
M Goodings, 7 D Cooper, 8 M Rees, 9 R Wibberley, 10 C Cook, 11 J Bellers-Smith,

12
R Hughes, 13 D Campling, 14 M Ironside, 15 A Sellars.

F2 SIDECARS

Race 5 – 1^st
Leg – 6 Laps:

1
Bell/Bell (LCR) 11m 44.970s, 2 Harrison/Patterson, 3 Lindley/Bell, 4
Crawford/Moore,

5
Lambert/Canipa, 6 Chandler/Schofield, 7 Noble/Chandler, 8 Flynn/Clark.