Guy Martin and Dean Harrison shared the spoils at Oliver’s Mount on Saturday with Martin taking his first win on the Tyco BMW in the opening leg of the Spring Cup and Harrison giving the new Yamaha R1M its first road race victory later in the day in the Senior race.
Martin opened his account in the first leg of the Spring Cup, hitting the front on lap two when he overhauled early race leader Ryan Farquhar, who was back on a Superbike for the first time since 2012. The SGS International/KMR Kawasaki rider stuck with Martin for two laps but eventually ended up three seconds adrift. Ivan Lintin took a solid third with James Cowton in fourth and Steve Mercer fifth as both Lee Johnston and Harrison were forced to retire.
The last race of the day, the opening leg of the Senior, saw Harrison make amends and he was never headed, grabbing the lead on the run down to Mere Hairpin on the opening lap. Despite plunging temperatures, Harrison set some impressive lap times on the Mar-Train machine to come home 2.5s clear of Martin who was closely followed home by Johnston, Lintin and Farquhar.
Proceedings were halted for over two hours in the morning after a number of red flags and it was 2.45pm before the racing got underway with the opening leg of the Junior 600cc race, which saw a start to finish victory for Lintin on the RC Express Racing Kawasaki despite coming under pressure in the latter stages from Johnston on the East Coast Construction Triumph. Lintin grabbed the holeshot to lead at the end of the opening lap as pole man Harrison found himself a couple of seconds back in third.
Johnston, having his first outing of the year, closed to within half a second of Lintin but the Lincolnshire man wasn’t to be denied and took his first road race victory for the team, 0.487s clear of Johnstone. Harrison was unable to make any impression and finished three seconds back in third with Cowton, Daley Mathison and Mick Goodings completing the top six.
I’m really pleased with that, I was disappointed with the 600 result earlier and really wanted to give both the team and Yamaha a win on the R1. I knew the bike had the pace so pushed to hit the front early and see if I could pull away,” said Harrison.
“It is especially pleasing when you look at the quality of riders behind me and also the times we are all doing given the conditions and time of year. I felt comfortable at the front and am looking forward to getting back out tomorrow.”
In the Lightweight race, it was Cowton who got the verdict after overhauling Lintin on the second lap, the Stewart Smith Racing rider eventually coming home some 6.6s clear as Lintin dropped back in the second half of the race. Farquhar had a lonely ride into third with Bradley Vicars having a good ride into fourth just ahead of Junior Manx Grand Prix winner Andy Lawson and Adam Child.
Dave Molyneux/Ben Binns came home ahead of Conrad Harrison/Lee Patterson in the two F2 Sidecar races whilst there were also wins during the day for Farquhar (Classic F1 – his 100th Scarborough win), Davy Morgan (Spring Cup B), Seamus Elliott (Junior B) and Alastair Haworth (Lightweight).
