International Gold Cup

Saturday & Sunday - 15th & 16th September 1984

The British 1984 motor cycle racing season had suffered at the cold hand of recession, the crowds stayed at home too often and the circuit owners had to axe meetings and implement cutbacks. Attendances fluctuated wildly everywhere but were generally forty percent down on previous years, it appeared harder than ever to promote a reasonably big British Championship date. The ever-enterprising Donington circuit attracted only 3,000 to a two day combined European and British Championship meeting, which ruined their season and fried their books.

The presence of former double World 500cc Champion Barry Sheene, Yorkshire-rival Mick Grant, World Formula One Champion Joey Dunlop, World Formula Two Champion Tony Rutter, works Mitsui Yamaha-rider Steve Parrish, works Heron Suzuki-rider Rob McElnea, European Champion Eero Hyvarinen, top privateers Roger Burnett, David Griffith, Keith Huewen, Phil Mellor, Graeme McGregor, Mark Salle and Graham Wood, all ensured a massive turn-out at the Oliver’s Mount International Gold Cup meeting. The 20,000 spectator attendance made Scarborough the second best attended motor cycle race meeting in Britain in 1984.

The scheduled six race programme on Saturday was abandoned when the mists rolled in from the sea shrouding the Oliver’s Mount circuit in dense fog, with only two of the practice sessions being run before racing was halted. Conditions improved on Sunday, with occasional showers which kept the track damp and slowed lap times down a bit, but allowed the nine race schedule to commence with the first leg of the 500cc International Gold Cup.

500cc Gold Cup – 1st Leg

In the first leg of the feature 500cc Gold Cup event, reduced from ten to eight laps, David Griffith scored the first International race win of his career. Barry Sheene scorched away from the line into the lead, but as the race progressed it became clear that Griffith was determined not to let the former World Champion have it all his own way.

As they started the penultimate lap, Sheene still led from hard-charging Griffith with veteran Mick Grant third. A slide at Mountside Hairpin had Sheene fighting to keep control of his works 497 Heron Suzuki, although he stayed on board he could not prevent Griffith and Grant getting past him. Griffiths took control in the tricky conditions and stayed in front on the final lap to cross the line ahead of Grant. Sheene recovered to finish third, with Roger Burnett, a former mechanic of Roger Marshall fourth and Sheene’s Heron Suzuki team mate Rob McElnea completing the top five.

Afterwards an emotional 25-year-old Griffith received the plaudits from his fellow riders in the paddock, having achieved what so many other privateer riders could only dream of doing: ‘beating the mighty Barry Sheene’. In the 1984-85 edition of the world’s leading motor cycle racing annual ‘Motocourse’, Griffith was quoted as : “By far the best completely unrealised 500cc prospect for the future.”

Loyblox Battle of the Twins Championship

Just a week after breaking his collarbone in the European Championship at Zolder, Cagiva-mounted Trevor Nation defied his shoulder injury to win the race for twin cylinder machines by a seven second margin over Roger Burnett with veteran racer Tony Rutter third.

Steve Henshaw was unable to race due to a broken upper right arm, sustained when he crashed at Glenduff during practice for the TT, but was at Scarborough to present Nation with the Battle of the Twins trophy. Henshaw said: “We’re a couple of crocks together, but he’s a good deal better than me.”

Road Racing TT Formula Two Championship

The Formula Two Championship event had to be stopped when Doncaster-rider, Dave Goodings, crashed his 350 Yamaha into the side of the Mount Café. He was taken to Scarborough Hospital for a cautionary check over.

The race was restarted over a reduced distance of six laps with Aussie ace Graeme McGregor taking an easy win on his Arnie Fletcher prepared 350 Yamaha ahead of Phil Mellor. New Zealander Des Barry finished third, David Griffith fourth and Tony Head rounded out the top five on his standard RD-engined Formula Two Yamaha.

Motor Cycle News Masters Championship

The Motor Cycle News Masters Championship carried a purse of £3,000 at each round. Riders could race any machine of their choice, most opting for two-stroke 500cc machines and had to play a double-points ace at one of the series meetings. Mick Grant, Rob McElnea and Eero Hyvarinen all chose Scarborough as their double-points round.

Roger Burnett led the charge off the line on his RG500 Suzuki, but was passed by David Griffith in a one foot down moto-x style manoeuvre at Mountside Hairpin on the first lap. Griffith’s lead at the start of the third lap was up to nearly five seconds, but slid off after losing the front end at Memorial. He rejoined the race in ninth place and set off after the leaders, but a carburetor had been dislodged in the crash and Griffith was forced to retire to the paddock. “In the break I swapped a rain tyre for an intermediate and it just wasn’t grippy enough,” said the 23-year-old from Lutterworth, Leicestershire.

Grant then proved that life begins at forty when he carved through the field to pull off an astonishing win on the final lap. The veteran Heron Suzuki rider had been down in seventh place on the opening lap of the ten-lap race. With four laps to go, Grant was in fourth place. But on successive laps at the left handed Memorial Corner he out-braked first Sheene, then McElnea and finally Hyvarinen to win in front of the ecstatic 20,000 crowd.

Scunthorpe-based rider Graham Wood took fifth spot, Roger Burnett sixth, Steve Parrish seventh, Ulsterman Joey Dunlop riding a Honda RS500 triple was plagued by a sticking throttle to finish a tricky eighth, reigning Masters Champion Keith Huewen ninth and Andy McGladdery tenth.

Grant’s victory rocketed him to third in the series, with his 15 point score automatically increased twofold up to 30 by virtue of having played his double-points ace. A delighted Grant said: “I thought I could have a good result and once I was in fourth I shut my eyes and braked a little later every time I got to Memorial.”

Wayne Gardner, not competing at Scarborough, took the Masters Championship title at the final Brands Hatch round ahead of McElnea and Joey Dunlop.

International 250cc

Pete Hubbard, returned to race action only a week after recovering from a broken wrist, he had a terrific scrap with 24-year-old Paul Tinker in the 250cc International race, before he finally managed to take the lead midway through the race and go on to win. Tony Head completed the podium, enjoying his first race outing since the TT. Kevin Mitchell took over the 250 Decorite ride, from Gordon Allott, to finish fourth and Rugby-rider Mick Preston completed the top five.

Kim Barker was the only man to break a bone at Scarborough. He broke his left collarbone when he crashed at Mere Hairpin during the 250cc race.

Shell Oils TT Formula One Championship

Mick Grant followed up his Masters win by scoring an easy victory in the seventh round of the Shell Oils TT Formula One race. Ducati-mounted Trevor Nation, who had earlier won the Battle of the Twins event, powered away into the lead but ruined his chances of a double victory, when he slipped off at Memorial on the third lap.

From then on, there was no stopping Grant, who quickly established a five second advantage and increased it steadily lap-by-lap until the flag. Grant’s team mate Rob McElnea and Ducati-mounted Roger Burnett held second and third throughout, with 42-year-old Tony Rutter fourth, on the factory Ducati. Geoff Johnson finished fifth on the Formula One Ducati normally campaigned by injured Steve Henshaw.

Grant’s Formula One win was his 22 nd victory at the Yorkshire seaside circuit and also his first double victory there since his days as a Kawasaki works rider, it was also the only solitary race win in the 750cc Formula One Championship for Suzuki.

125cc

Dutch veteran Anton Straver won the 125 event for the second year running. The 39-year-old carpenter led from start to finish on his twin-cylinder Italian MBA machine and vowed he would return to Scarborough the folowing September, hunting a hat trick. The 1984 Dutch 125cc Champion was a clear winner in front of Ian McConnachie, with Jussi Hautaniemi, the Finn who had previously based himself in Scarborough for a season, taking third.

500cc Gold Cup – 2nd Leg

Barry Sheene shot back into the International limelight by scooping his first top class victory in more than two years when he won the second leg of the 500cc Gold Cup, an event he last won five years previously.

Sheene led from start-to-finish shrugging off a strong mid-race challenge from team mate Rob McElnea. Mick Grant made it an official Suzuki team 1-2-3, by once more fighting his way up through the field. After his crash in the earlier MCN Masters race, Griffiths rode more cautiously aiming for a race finish rather than the win and came home in fourth place ahead of Roger Burnett.

After being declared the overall Gold Cup winner ahead of Griffith and Grant, as Sheene mounted the rostrum he said: “It’s been so long since I last won a race, I hardly know what to do.” He also commented: “It’s great to win at Scarborough. I like it here and I don’t care what anyone else thinks about the circuit, I love the place.”

Throughout the 1984 season, Sheene ran his 497 Suzuki with two kilos of lead weight strapped to the front of the frame, so that it ended up with a 52/48 frontal bias to the weight distribution. But when he raced at Scarborough, he used to run eight kilos of lead !, Sheene explained: “Then I could belt it straight out of the corners at full throttle on low gearing and still keep the front wheel more or less on this planet.”

It was Sheene’s fourth Gold Cup victory which put him second in the all time Gold Cup standings behind five-times winner Geoff Duke. Thirty-four-year-old, Sheene, announced his retirement from racing at the end of the 1984 season and his Scarborough Gold Cup victory was actually the last International race win of his professional racing career.

A lot of critics voiced opinions that Sheene only raced at Scarborough due to its attractive financial inducements, made possible by the large crowds that continued to flock there even during the recessive 1980’s. Sheene said: “That’s rubbish, and to prove it, the last time I raced there in September 1984 I was on £8000 start money, and the weather was pretty bad, though they still had a sizeable crowd.

At the end of the day I went to Peter Hillaby, the organiser, and asked him what the crowd was like. He said it wasn’t as good as if it had been sunny, but they’d still made money. I said ok, I’ll just take five grand and you can keep the rest, and I wouldn’t have done that if I didn’t like the place and the people behind it a lot.” He also went on to say: “In fact, the year after I stopped racing, the only weekend I really missed bikes at all was Oliver’s Mount, when I read the comics and thought – ah, Scarborough, wish I’d been there.”

350cc

Aussie McGregor made it a double by taking the 350cc event. Young Lincolnshire-rider Mark Phillips led for the early part of the race, but McGregor finally wore him down to notch up another impressive win. Richard Coates, an engineer from Castletown, completed the podium.