September 1977 - International Gold Cup

The world’s top riders competed at the September 1977 two-day International road races, which attracted more than 56,000 spectators through the gate. The entry was headed by back-to-back double World Champion Barry Sheene and his Texaco Heron Suzuki team-mates, Pat Hennen and reigning British Champion Steve Parrish.

Hennen, a 23-year-old bachelor from California had made history in 1976, when during his first season of racing in Europe, won the Finnish Grand Prix; becoming the first ever American to win a World Championship race. He had also made a brilliant debut at the 1977 TT and afterwards said: “It’s like being given a licence to take your racing bike out on the public road at home.” 

 

Their formidable opposition was in the form of 32-year-old Yorkshire man Mick Grant on a works Kawasaki and his team-mate, Barry Ditchburn. During the 1977 season both Grant and Ditchburn had been splitting their loyalties between the F750 championship on the 750 triple and the Grand Prix’ campaigning Kawasaki’s new KR250 in-line twin. In his first outing on the KR250, Grant gave the ‘tandem’ twin its first GP win; at the Assen Dutch TT in front of 150,000 spectators. Ditchburn, from Northfleet in Kent, had also been in the results and in only his second ever GP at Imola, finishing third on the rostrum proving he was as good on his day as any rider in the land.

 

Twenty-seven-year-old Sheene and Grant were the current joint holders of the Oliver’s Mount outright lap record, each having roared round the circuit during the 1976 September meeting at 78.42mph in 1 min 50.8 seconds. Sheene was astride a 542cc Suzuki on that occasion, but for the 1977 races was riding a 653cc Suzuki, as was his team-mate, Hennen. The new 653cc Suzuki machine was basically a bored out four cylinder 500cc machine with a stepped cylinder arrangement, the bottom cylinders were kept low at the front to put more weight over the front wheel.

 

Steve Parrish was aboard a 700cc model, the 23-year-old farmer’s son from Steeple Morden, Hertfordshire was competing in his first year with the works Suzuki team. One man on a private bike that could challenge the might of the big works teams was Dave Potter, riding one of the best prepared Yamaha 750s in Britain and was always a likely candidate for a top three position. Potter, had placed fifth in the 1976 F750 World Championship after competing in just three rounds and was considered to be the most consistent non-factory rider in England.

Barry Roberts, a member of the White Helmets Motorcycle Display Team, rode his 750 Triumph backwards around the hilly, twisty, Oliver's Mount course during the lunch break in a brisk time of 2 minutes 41 seconds. Earlier in the year, Roberts had also ridden the entire length of the 37.73-mile, Isle of Man, TT-course backwards in a time of 41 minutes. Roberts, from St helens, Wigan, would also be in action during the meeting competing in the Formula One race aboard a 1000 Laverda Jota.

Forward Trust 1000cc Final

They were all in the Forward Trust 1,000 Final in which Barry Sheene made circuit history by becoming the first man to lap the Scarborough circuit at more than 80 mph on his works 653 Suzuki. However it was not Sheene’s day as he was to go out of the race on the 5th lap with a wheel bearing failure, after setting a new lap record of 80.16 mph in 1 min 48.4 sec. Grant won the race at a speed of 77.93 mph from the immaculate Ted Broad-prepared 750cc Yamaha of Dave Potter. Cheadle Hulme’s Steve Kibble riding a comparatively less powerful 348cc Yamaha made it on to the rostrum ahead of Barry Ditchburn, who was plainly not happy with the mountainside circuit and finished a disappointing fourth on the three-cylinder Kawasaki.

 

In an attempt to keep the big 653 Suzuki’s front wheel on the ground around the tight and twisty Oliver’s Mount circuit with its low-gear hairpin corners, Sheene actually strapped lead ballast to the front of the frame below the radiator. However with its short wheel base and massive power output of 135bhp at 10,800rpm, it still spectacularly wheelied all the way up Quarry Hill.

 

 

 

 

Motor Cycle News/Brut 33 Superbike race

The Motor Cycle News/Brut 33 Superbike race, regarded as Britain’s most prestigious road race championship, once again promised to be a thrilling duel between the works Suzuki and Kawasaki teams.  

However the behaviour of a small section of the crowd prompted Sheene to label them “animals” when he broke down in the race. After being disgracefully jeered and insulted, he was so upset that to the fans cost he left the Mount without competing in the final event; the International Gold Cup as scheduled.

The incident happened when Sheene retired with mechanical trouble on lap 14 of the 15-lap race and came to a halt at the Memorial Corner, which also put a severe dent in his 40 point championship.

 

To add extra spice to the race, bonus prize money was being paid to the leader on the fifth and tenth laps. Sheene had led at both the 5th and 10th laps from Grant to collect an extra £200 before his machine failed. To help him keep track of the laps, his mechanic Don MacKay would stand at the exit of Mountside Hairpin holding a board with a “£” sign on; with which he would show Sheene at the appropriate moment !

 

Green-clad Kawasaki rider Mick Grant took the MCN Superbike win for the second year in a row at a reduced speed 72.62 mph, due to strong winds and showers, with riders having to change from dry weather slicks to wet weather tyres. Grant said: “I suppose you could call this my home circuit, if I did not win here I think I would get lynched. Barry had bad luck with his machines. I almost had a slip three laps from the end, but managed to hold on and win. It was easier after Barry’s bike had packed in.” Hennen, from Phoenix in Arizona, brought his works 653cc Suzuki home in second place ahead of the BP/Ted Broad Yamaha of Dave Potter. Fifth was Bernard Murray ahead of the ex 750 Suzuki GB of George Fogarty. Behind them was another circuit debut rider, Jubilee TT winner Joey Dunlop on his Seeley-framed 750 Yamaha ahead of Scarborough regular Derek Chatterton.

 

Sheene regained his 40 point championship lead when he won the following round at Cadwell Park, going on to retake the MCN Superbike title, 21 points ahead of Grant. Hennen was an excellent third, despite racing on circuits new to him.

 

 

 

 

500cc Gold Cup Trophy

Grand Prix regular Chas Mortimer, who rode brilliantly at the 1976 September International winning the 250 and 500 races, achieved his second, successive Gold Cup victory. He took the chequered flag ahead of Steve ‘Stavros’ Parrish, who had during the year been a consistent force in the Suzuki Grand Prix team finishing fifth in the 500cc World Championship; with two fourth places his best results. Third across the line was Steve Tonkin on a 351 Yamaha backed by Leicestershire Chemist George Beale, an avid collector of historic motorcycles

 

250cc Final

Finnish rider, 32-year-old Eero Hyvarinen from Kupio, set a new class lap record of 74.58mph on his way to taking his second International Scarborough 250cc victory, his first win had been at the 1974 International Gold Cup. Guisborough’s Alan Stewart on a PA Yamaha backed by his long-term sponsor Russell Armstrong’s Motorcycles, finished second in front of Clive Padgett. Clive, is the 18-year-old son of Peter Padgett, himself a former racer who runs the Yamaha specialist business, Padgetts of Batley, Yorkshire. Clive ended the year with the 250cc ACU Star, plus the 250 and 500cc clubman’s championship trophies.

 

In fourth spot was regular overseas visitor to Oliver’s Mount, French-based Australian grand prix star Vic Soussan, who had this to say of the Scarborough track : “I like this track. It is very easy to learn, but very difficult to ride fast and you cannot afford to make a mistake. My gearing will give me only about 106mph along the top straight.”

 

350cc Final

The result was reversed in the International 350cc Final, with 27-year-old Stewart, an oil rig fitter from Guisborough, near Middlesbrough,  taking the chequered flag ahead of Hyvarinen. Completing the top three was Grimsby born-and-bred rider Kevin Stowe on a Derek Chatterton-backed Yamaha, with the consistent Vic Soussan again in fourth. One of the pre-race favourites Steve Kibble failed to finish, but had the consolation of a new class lap record in 1 min 52.9 seconds, 76.96mph.

 

125cc Final

Sweden’s Per Carlsson on a twin-cylinder Morbidelli took the International 125cc Final at a race average of 66.99mph, in the process smashing Clive Horton’s class lap record by more than two seconds and setting a new best of 2 minutes 07.6 seconds, 68.09mph.

 

International Sidecar Championship

 The sidecar class was well represented at the meeting by Hemel Hempstead’s newly crowned World Sidecar champion George O’Dell, who had managed to break the Swiss and German stranglehold on the sidecar World Championship, partnered by Cliff Holland and Kenny Arthur, he brought the three-wheeled title back to Britain for the first time in 23 years. He had strong opposition in the form of Rolf Boland (Switzerland) and Werner Schwarzel (West Germany), who were second and third in the World Sidecar championship table. 28-year-old Schwarzel had been runner-up in the past four consecutive World sidecar seasons (1973, 74, 75 and 76), had switched from Konig power to one of ex-World Champion Helmut Fath’s- four-cylinder two-stroke engined ARO outfits for the 1977 season.

The 10-lap ‘Motorcycle’ International Sidecar Championship race, which incorporated the British Championship, saw Werner Schwarzel, take the win ahead of the Trevor Ireson-framed TZ 700cc Yamaha outfit of Scottish pairing Jock Taylor and Lewis Ward. Chasing hard in third place was O’Dell, who had last raced at Scarborough six years before on a BSA powered outfit. This time however O’Dell was equipped with a Yamaha powered ex-Rolf Biland sidecar outfit with Cliff Holland in the chair.

 

Up-and-coming Bill Hodgkins and John Parkins, of Bromley, enjoying good form during the 1977 season on their Joe Francis Motors-backed Yamaha, finished fourth, adding to their points tally and keeping them in third position overall in the British Championship table.

Schwarzel and passenger Andreas Huber, hacked over three seconds off the sidecar lap record in their efforts to keep ahead of the Spike Hughes’ Yamaha outfit, of 22-year-old East Lothian rider Jock Taylor. Breaking through the 75mph barrier for the first time, Schwarzel on his right-hand-side-chaired ARO Teppichboden outfit, circulated in 1 min 55.6 seconds a blistering average of 75.16mph.

 

 Avon Road Runner Production Championship

The Avon Road Runner Production Championship race, held over 8-laps of the bumpy. narrow and undulating switchback circuit, saw a grid containing bikes ranging from 250 Yamahas to 1,000cc Laverdas. From a dead engine start, the field of two dozen bikes burst into an explosion of noise and movement as the riders furiously kicked or thumbed their bikes into life and weaved through the slower riders. From the initial chaos, emerged the exciting spectacle of powerful Guzzis and Ducatis on road legal tyres, flashing past just inches away, at speeds that would be highly illegal on the public highway.

Roger Cope on an Italian 900 Ducati Desmo V-twin came home the winner of the 1,000cc category ahead of Roy Armstrong on a 850 Moto Guzzi Le Mans. Armstrong, a chief mechanic with Sports Motorcycles of Manchester, went on to win the 1977 Avon Road Runner 1,000cc Production championship.

But in the 500 and 250cc classes Yamaha power did the job. Tony Smith, from Orpington, won the 500cc section on a RD400 two-stroke twin, with the flying Phil Mellor, sneaking up into second place on an RD400 backed by Yorkshire dealer Terry Silvester.

Richard Stevens, on an RD250 sponsored by Holloway Motorcycles of Bath, was No.1 in the quarter-litre section. The scope for performance tuning was greatly restricted in the championship, and Stevens, like all other competitors was limited to a few basic modifications. One of the major problems of racing a road going motorcycle is the lack of ground clearance. Stevens removed the standard footrests and used the pillion rests to mount a rear set conversion, but found the exhaust pipes grounded along eight inches of their length. To avoid being catapulted off the machine by a grounding silencer lifting the rear wheel, he simply cut and re-welded the pipes and silencers without altering their respective lengths.

No one who had watched the 1000cc race could have failed to be amazed at the sight of these massive road bikes lurching, weaving, wallowing and generally tying themselves in knots under the extremes of hard riding. The racing had dispelled any ideas about production racing being a tame version of the real thing.