"Real Road Racing"

Phil Tarman

Site Supporter
Moderator
Joined
Dec 12, 2010
Messages
9,367
Age
81
Location
Greeley, CO
Bike
2010 Silver NT700VA (ABS)
The CBS Sports Network has hour-long programs a couple of times a week with UK road racing. Tonight I'm watching racing from the Oliver's Mount course at Scarbourough. They squeeze three races into an hour. The first one tonight was 600cc bikes, followed by sidecar, also 600ccs, and now it's 600cc sportbikes. The first race was won by what looked like a 600cc four-cylinder Kawasaki race bike, followed by a Suzuki SV650, and then the next four were Kawasaki ER6s.

There are humps and bumps and very narrow roads with barely room for the single seaters to pass. I saw one pass in the sidecar race.

Give it a look -- it's different from closed circuit tracks, more similar to the Isle of Mann.
 

DirtFlier

Site Supporter
Joined
Dec 13, 2010
Messages
3,332
Location
Troy, OH
Bike
2010 Silver NT700V/ABS
Apparently "Oliver's Mount" has been a motorcycle event for many decades. I have a friend who visits the UK yearly, he has a bike there, and he took in the races at Oliver's Mount one year. He said it was family-oriented and was amazed when sitting next to a mom with small kids and heard her explain to her kids the difference between 2-strokes and 4-strokes and why the former is handicapped in some classes because of a performance edge! They have a long, long history of motorcycle racing in the UK. :)
 
OP
OP
Phil Tarman

Phil Tarman

Site Supporter
Moderator
Joined
Dec 12, 2010
Messages
9,367
Age
81
Location
Greeley, CO
Bike
2010 Silver NT700VA (ABS)
Today I'm watching racing from Cookstown, Ireland. No sidecars, but very exciting racing. They start races in two waves and usually the winner comes from the first wave. On some curves they're sticking their heads into hedges. Very different from the MotoGP circuit.
 

karl

Site Supporter
Joined
Dec 13, 2010
Messages
1,475
Location
Hampden, MA
Bike
2010 Silver NT700VAA
Watching the Irish guys run always makes me feel sane in comparison.
 
OP
OP
Phil Tarman

Phil Tarman

Site Supporter
Moderator
Joined
Dec 12, 2010
Messages
9,367
Age
81
Location
Greeley, CO
Bike
2010 Silver NT700VA (ABS)
Watching the Irish guys run always makes me feel sane in comparison.
Isn't that the truth? I was watching it and they had a display of their speed running for one of the Superbike (1000cc racebikes) and the guy they were watching was doing 140 on about a 12-foot wide piece of pavement with a rock wall on one side and a 10-foot high hedge on the other. I'm not sure I would have been riding 40mph on that. Some of the onboard cameras were showing the front fork and wheel and they were using all the fork stroke and the wheel was jerking back and forth on the straights.
 

JQL

Growing old disgracefully
Joined
Dec 19, 2010
Messages
831
Location
Val de Marne, France
Bike
2010 NT700 & 2019 FJR1300
Used to live near Olivier's Mount as a teenager.

Racing has been happening there since year dot!
 
Top Bottom