SCIVYER TAKES ANOTHER BRITISH TITLE

Horton was back to defend his title in 1978 and amongst the ranks alongside him were again Williams, Huxley, Murray and Woodland with new names to the series including Tony Rutter and Ron Haslam. Also back for more were Dave Hickman, 1966 125cc British Champion Rod Scivyer and a relatively unknown club racer by the name of Dave Hunter. Scivyer led for much of the way in the opening round at Oulton Park with Williams, Huxley, Murray and Steve Kibble giving chase. It was the latter that got the win much to his amusement as his entrant, Paul Johnson, had initially been rejected for one of the Hondas having been told his rider ‘wouldn’t be able to do it justice’. Williams won the next round at Cadwell, leading from start to finish, with Haslam getting his first points on the board in second ahead of Huxley, Rutter and Hunter. Scivyer was forced to retire the Hartford Motorcycles machine with a flooded carburettor. Hunter, riding the Granby Honda, came into his own at Brands at round three, seeing off the determined challenge of Horton to claim his first win in the series. Scivyer was left on the line at the start but tore through the pack to take third ahead of Woodland, Haslam and Murray. For the remainder of the year, it was a head-to-head between Scivyer and Hunter at every round with the beauty and essence of the championship seeing the British Champion go up against the club and national rider of modest means. With no theoretical difference in machines, it would all come down to skill, experience and quick thinking. At Mallory, Hunter made the best start with Scivyer outside the top 20 going into Gerrards. However, he was amazingly fourth on the way out and within a couple of laps had taken the lead. Hunter retaliated and led through the Esses on the final lap only for Scivyer to retake him at the hairpin for another win. Horton took third ahead of Murray and Woodland. Onto Snetterton and Hunter grabbed his second win of the season also taking the championship lead with it as he again got one over Horton. Scivyer took third from Graham Waring and Murray and just three points now separated Hunter, Horton and Scivyer in the title table. However, from here on in, Scivyer put in a master class of riding and won all four of the remaining rounds and with it the championship. None of the race wins were handed to him though with the race at Oulton in August seeing Rod, Huxley and Murray battle all the way to the line. Scivyer also won at Scarborough, from Steve Tonkin and Hunter, the one and only time the series went to the North Yorkshire venue. Hunter took three podiums in the final four races to take second overall, comfortably clear of Horton with Honda announcing that for the 1979 series the new MT125R4 would be water-cooled.

Final championship points 1 Rod Scivyer 106pts 2 Dave Hunter 90 3 Clive Horton 56 4 Bernard Murray 44 5 Charlie Williams 40 6 Derek Huxley 39