Dean Harrison hits top form at Cock o’ The North meeting at Oliver’s Mount

The weekend may have started overcast with a slight drizzle but this didn’t dampen the spirits of the spectators who were out in force to witness the return, writes Dean Stedman.

Racing got underway with the SuperSport A race in which Harrison wasted no time in making his mark back at the mount taking the win with a best lap of 1:45.490.

Adam McLean took second with Gary McCoy taking third.

After a Red flag in the SuperSport B race, it was Paul Marley taking the win followed by Joey Lambden and Aran Sadler.

Next up was the first of the weekend’s Motul CSBK races.

Harrison on the Ducati 916 SP took the win with Rob Hodson holding out for second and Barry Furber claiming third.

Lightweights took to the track with Joey Thompson taking his first win of the weekend.

The first leg of the feature Cock o’ the North race saw Harrison, McLean and Hodson on the front row. They started as they finished with McLean posting the fasted lap of 1:48.7 but still unable to catch Harrison.

This weekend saw the introduction of The Side car taxi led by fans favourite, Greg Lambert.

A perfect way to give ACU licence holders the chance to see the track from another angle. It was well received, and is set to be present in race weekends to come.

Another first for the race weekend was the tent take over hosted by Oliver’s Mount director Andy Hayes, with special guests the whole of the Harrison racing family.

Dean, Adrian and Conrad took to the stage after racing on Saturday to talk about growing up in a racing family and some of their favourite stories of racing at Olivers Mount, to a packed out beer tent followed by an evening of live music and food.

Tent takeover will be happening at the Barry Sheene Classic with another stunning line up of guests in TT Legends Steve Parish, Trevor Nation and Ian Simpson which promises to be an amazing evening of entertainment.

Sunday racing opened much like Saturday had closed with a win for Harrison in the SuperSport A followed by McLean and Hodson.

SuperSport B saw some new names on the leaderboard with Michael Rees taking the win with the fasted lap of 1:53.872 and Jacques Foley in second followed by Russell Brook taking third.

Harrison took another win in the Classic Superbike class with Hodson claiming second and Tom Weeden managing to hold off Barry Furber for third.

Thompson claimed another victory in the Lightweights ahead of Richie Welsh and Daniel Ingham.

The SuperTwins were up next and another stunning performance from Hodson saw him take the win from McCoy with Marcus Simpson taking third.

The final leg of this race weekend’s feature race was anything but dull, a red flag meant a complete restart was needed.

After a schedule shuffle so bikes could be refuelled and tyres warmed it was Dean Harrison on the Yamaha R6 with a lap time of 1:46.153, that took the win ahead of Mike Brown and McCoy.

Jacques Foley took the win in the in the final SuperSport B race of the weekend with Michael Rees taking second and Adrian Harrison claiming third.

The SuperSport A race saw the same faces from our feature have a little swap around Harrison taking first with McCoy claiming second and Mike Brown having to settle for third on this occasion.

It was a clean sweep for Thompson, claiming victory in all Lightweight races over the weekend on his Yamaha TZ250.

Thompson, Richie Welsh and Grant Whitaker completed 250, 400, CB 500 victory hat-tricks over the weekend.

The final race of the weekend saw Harrison claim yet another victory with Tom Weeden fending off Barry Furber to take second place and keep his top spot in the CSBK championship ahead of Furber.

The Ramsden boys took a clean sweep this weekend in the sidecars leaving them on top of the podium followed by Conrad Harrison and his new passenger for the weekend and Oliver’s Mount newcomer Rhys Gibbons.

The Chandler boys from White Rose Racing took third, meaning the BDS F2 Sidecar class was an all Yorkshire podium.

A stunning weekend for Harrison saw cross the threshold of 100 wins at the Mount, with eight in this weekend alone, he set a new lap record on the Classic Superbike.

Hodson had managed to also get underneath the old lap record, however in the same race Harrison managed to best the Greenall Racing Classic Superbike with a new lap record of 1:44.677.

He also walked away with the Cock o’ The North title.

Hodson did set and keep a new SuperTwin lap record with a time of 1:49.206.

The team at Oliver’s Mount are now firmly setting their sights on the next race weekend. The Barry Sheene Classic on July 22 and 23.

Tickets for The Barry Sheene Festival are available from www.oliversmount.com

*Newby’s Paul Moir was delighted with his debut at his home circuit during the Cock o’ The North meeting.

He said: “It was an amazing weekend as a newcomer.

"I didn’t qualify for the super twin feature race due to really not to many laps and very greasy conditions on Saturday morning. I qualified with a 2:13 lap, and was pretty pleased as my target lap on my under powered mini twin was a 2:10.

"But I was then put on back of 600B Super Sport race on the Saturday and this time in this race would maybe get me back into feature race on Sunday’s action. I was learning so much as it was my first dry time on the bike, I then dropped my lap time to a 2:08.

"I was extremely pleased with this even though I didn’t make the feature super twins race for Sunday, but still would race that day at the back of the 600B.

"In my first race I set a PB of 2:04.5. I was blown away at this point and couldn’t believe my times, then second 600B race on Sunday I managed to maintain the 2:04s but got another PB of 2:04.4.

“This now puts me in good stead for Barry Sheene Classic event later this month.

"I’d like to say a huge thank-you to family, sponsors and friends who attended and supported this weekend, it was amazing to have you all there.

“I’d like to say a massive thank-you to Andy and Wendy Hayes on such an amazing event they put on, for my first one it has been life changing.

“Also a massive thanks to Trigger Bradshaw and his team for making the whole place beautiful on and off track, and a massive thank you to the orange army of marshals, without them racing isn’t possible.”