By Next to take part in Road Racing News, revamped Oliver’s Mount Top 8 series is multiple Thundersport GB Champion John Dieterman.
A top three finisher from the Barry Sheene Trophy race of 2020, his answers to the set of questions, are as follows:
Q1: First memory of Oliver’s Mount?
“Dad was racing in the Sound of Singles category, on his home made RM250 race bike in 1988 and one of the rounds was at Scarborough, that’s the first time we’d been, and we were in our clapped-out Sherpa van and a p***y caravan.
The chicane wasn’t there then I don’t think, Dad did quite well, and I think he finished 3rd.”
Q2: Favourite part about racing at the mount?
“By far the crowd and atmosphere, they are so knowledgeable and enjoy watching every race and seem to know every rider. You feel part of an event rather than just taking part in it.”
Q3: Favourite section of Scarborough course?
“I don’t know the name, but its the right and left chicane after going up the first hill, the crowd is close and it’s a brilliant bit of the course when you pop out of the trees at the top and flick it into the right hander, followed by the banked left with the bike moving around.”
Q4: Best moment thus far at Scarborough?
“My best meeting was my last one in 2022 and battling against Hodson (Rob), Sheils (Derek) and Sweeney (Micko) and getting 3rd in the Classic Superbike standings on my home-made Yamaha OU28, that was a great weekend.”
Q5: All time Scarborough racing hero?
“Dave Suddes. I’d only met him a few times, but he got my phone number as he had bought one of my old YZF750 (Yamaha) rolling chassis and he would happily hassle me constantly afterwards, but he was always friendly and good fun to be around. Greatly missed and a true hero of the circuit.”
Q6: Is there one machine in particular that you would like to race at Scarborough?
“I’d love to race Dad’s homemade RG500 (Suzuki) TTF1 bike, it’s an exact replica of Darren Dixon’s F1 bike and it would be fantastic to race it there one day, when we get new crankshafts for it! One of my favourite bikes.”
Q7: One word to describe Oliver’s Mount?
“Hectic”
Q8: Most respected racing rival at Scarborough?
“I’ve only ever done 3 meetings at Oliver’s Mount, but racing with Hodson was good, even though I was probably holding him up for a couple of laps.
We’ve known the Hodson family for years and I’d not really raced Rob much at Aintree but was great to be racing with those guys that weekend and I learnt a lot from following them.”
Words by Stevie Rial #dontletfearcontrolyou
