CAN THE GOLD CUP GO AHEAD?
Eleventh-hour rescue bid could save next month’s Scarborough meeting
Eleventh-hour plan to save Scarborough hatched,
Scarborough’s Gold Cup meeting, scheduled for September 22-23, could be thrown a lifeline by a group of enthusiasts who want to rescue bike racing at the Yorkshire venue.
Action was suspended at the Oliver’s Mount parkland circuit this season after the 2.4-mile track failed to comply with ACU safety standards. The 2018 Spring Cup, Cock O’ the North and Barry Sheene festival were all cancelled. The Gold Cup meeting seemed certain to suffer the same fate before the intervention of the consortium which is understood to be headed up by former sponsors and racers.
Neither Scarborough Council, who own Oliver’s Mount, nor the ACU, road racing’s governing body, could confirm the rescue bid but a source close to the consortium has told MCN a plan is well underway to save racing at England’s only pure roads venue. “I know nothing about the Gold Cup and there has been no contact with the ACU,” Paul King, Chairman of the ACU’s Road Race Committee, said. “Scarborough Council are the people who control all of this. They are the landowners. Nothing has changed since we said no to the track certificate in March.” That ACU action was taken after last year’s Gold Cup when bikes ridden by Jamie Coward and Daley Mathison ploughed through fences at Drury’s Hairpin and injured more than a dozen race fans in two separate crashes. Former Scarborough Clerk of the Course and current Isle of Man TT CoC, Gary Thompson, carried out a risk assessment of the track.
“We prioritised some safety modifications but these were not carried out,” Thompson explained. As a result the ACU refused to provide the venue with a track certificate, bringing race action at Scarborough to an end for the first time since 1946.
In June Scarborough Council indicated it was no longer willing to work with long-term Oliver’s Mount promoter Peter Hillaby and the Auto 66 Club. Although both the ACU and the Council have said they want to see racing continue at the Yorkshire circuit there have been few signs of progress. With no improvements made to the circuit it may be too late to save this year’s Gold Cup in spite of the last minute bid. Other problems remain. Riders have reportedly still not been paid their 2017 prize money nor been refunded their entry fees for this season. And some spectators say they have been unable to get their money back for pre-paid tickets for 2018 meetings. Paul King also confirmed some of those injured in last September’s crashes have initiated legal action.