Road Racing - Oliver's Mount Gold Cup

11 - 13 September 2020

Photographing the road racing at Oliver's Mount is one of my must-do motorcycle events, so it was great news that the Gold Cup was going to be held despite the CV19 outbreak. 

The team at Oliver's Mount had been working hard to meet the requirements set by the local council and it was noticeable that there were more staff on hand to guide the visitors around the site and to advise them on where to go. We went on Saturday to the capture action, which was sold out as was Sunday. 

The biggest crowd Oliver's Mount has seen was over 63000 in 1996. This meeting, however, was restricted to 2500, I presume to ensure that social distancing could be managed.

As it was, with the fans keeping their distance, masking up when required and stepping aside on the many paths that meander through the very hilly park to let others through.

So after parking up we took a few shots at the Esses In corner, which is just before, yes you guessed it the Esses Out, before heading off to the inside of the track via the retail park which was where it always is next to the carpark

New for this very strange year there was a one way system in place and you had to wear a face mask to browse the stalls. It’s a great way to get into the spirit of the event and start your visit to the only English closed road race.

George Formby was there with his TT race winning Shuttleworth Snap! Well its actually Graeme Hardy in a homage to the 1935 Formby comedy IOM TT classic film ‘No Limit’. He always puts a smile on my face.

After using the bridge at Sheene's Rise, my shooting partner and I split up so that we could cover more of the track. I headed off to one of my favourite locations - the inside of Mere, which with the two other hairpins at the Mount have to be some of the tightest corners in racing. 

Rob took the outside of the bend to give us a different view point of this great location.

Usually I will start shooting here right on the apex to the bend as you are right on top of the racers, but there were quite a few spectators here already with a few looking to be making a day of it.

Not wanting to get too close to anyone and break the social distancing rules, I picked a spot on Sheene's Rise looking down into the Hairpin.

In the first race, for Twin cylinder bikes Jamie Coward seen here would come out on top.

This is a great spot to spectate from, if a little treacherous. The bank is steep and it had rained so was muddy as well; top tip, take sturdy footwear when visiting the mount. It also has loads of large trees which were dropping wet leaves on the track. Being a motorcyclist I'm very aware of wet roads, especially with a coating of wet leaves.

The road racing boys are made of sterner stuff than me and were powering out of the hairpin. Some were sliding as they hit the power up the hill and most were pulling wheelies - the reason I  stood there. 

I managed to capture two of the Royal Air Force Motorsport Association riders # 45 Andrew Castle and #51 Rad Hughes. September is the month we commemorate the anniversary of the Battle of Britain, this being 80 years since the sacrifice of the few.

It seemed appropriate to include the RAF military riders in this report. 

It was during the Supersport 600cc race that David McConnachy riding his Triumph 675R had a big crash that brought out the red flag. David sustained a twisted swollen knee, twisted ankle and a broken big toe.

We caught up with David later who told us "the rider in 2nd place made a mistake and ran down the outside of me into the first corner. First thing I knew was my handle bar got pulled out of my hand. Before I knew it, I was down".

I took the opportunity to move while the clean up was going on, picking a point on the start/finish straight as I could see the track was drying and there was the chance that the riders would start to back into the hairpin. I wasn’t to be disappointed.

David Bell on his Yamaha OW01 is well known at the Mount and featured on the front cover of the programme. I'm sure he could see me snapping away and knew what I was after.

This was his best effort. Check out that skid mark, great stuff! He did over do on this one but was so far out in front it made no difference to the result and I got a great action picture, thank you Mr. Bell. 

David went on to pick up a win and two 2nds over the weekend. Dean Harrison riding a Kawasaki ZXR 750 went on to take the other wins in the three Classic Superbike races.

Just before lunch the PistonClick team met up to have a chat about the morning's racing and check out John McGuinness who needs no introduction.

McPint was doing a few parade laps on the great looking Quattro Plant Bournemouth Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR he should have been riding at this years IOM TT.

After lunch it was a re-run of the morning's racing which gave the team an opportunity to capture the riders from a few different locations.

Farm Bends was my first stop. This complex of corners is just before the start/finish line past the Oliver's Mount information board. This large sign has all the previous winners, which reads like a roll call of some the best road racers ever. 

On the bottom of the sign is the current list of circuit records, after this meeting it will need to be updated. On Sundays Steve Henshaw Gold Cup race Lee Johnston and Dean Harrison battled hard with the lap record for the Supersport race lap record being broken numerus times. 

Harrison took the lap record in an amazing 1 minute 44 around the tight and twisty 2.43 mile track. It was Johnston however, who would stand on the podium top spot to be crowned Gold Cup winner for 2020. 

Leaving Farm Bends I headed for Jefferies Jump which is a popular location for the spectator photographers as the riders will fly over the rise and wheelie down the straight.

I stayed here for a few races, taking a few pictures and enjoying the racing. The sidecars were also racing over the weekend with side car royalty, the Birchall Brothers, giving me one of many great pictures from my visit.

Ben and Tom are taking time out of the World Championships this year. A wise move in hindsight, considering the international travel restrictions that seem to randomly appear. 

In the final sidecar race of the weekend the Birchalls retired while in the lead, allowing Scarborough specialists #17 Lee Crawford and Scott Hardie on the LCR Suzuki to take the win and the Ian Bell Trophy.

As the racing was coming to a close I headed up the very steep hill at Jefferies back to the Esses. My shooting partner had beat me to this location capturing the action from different view points. So I just watched the racing 

Photographic Post Script.

If your photographic kit bag is not packed with long expensive focal length lenses, then Oliver's Mount is the place for you. Being close to the action is what road racing is all about for the fans, and Scarborough fits the bill.

With the IOM TT being cancelled this year, this was my only opportunity to get out and experience road racing in all its glory and capture the action.

The current crop of road specialists taking on the Mount didn’t disappoint, delivering some great racing and some great images for me, the spectator photographer.