Oliver’s Mount Top 8: Mick Grant

Oliver’s Mount Top 8: Mick Grant

Senior TT winner in 1975 and 1981, Macau GP winner in 1977, Scarborough Gold Cup winner in 1980, the motorcycle racing legend that is Mick Grant is the next racer to take part in Road Racing News, growing in popularity Oliver’s Mount Top 8 series.

Overall seven times a TT winner, plus a 250 Grand Prix victor at Assen and Anderstorp, the Yorkshire roads great answers to the Scarborough themed set of questions, is as follows:

Q1: First memory of Oliver’s Mount?

“Well first of all I was in short trousers and Geoff Duke was riding around. The Sidecars were actually motorbikes with sidecars bolted onto them, and I remember watching at the Esses on the top, them all going sideways, seeing names well forgotten now like Jackie Beeton, lots of racers like that.

Jack Brett was there on the 500, in fact I decided at that point that I wanted to go racing motorbikes, so Scarborough’s responsible for it all.”

Q2: Favourite part about racing at the mount?

“That’s a difficult one, it’s going to come up again in the other questions, the favourite part is it’s completely different from anywhere else.

Circuit wise, it’s just a lovely thing to go round, I’ve always enjoyed it. In my career when I was racing we had to do circuits and road racing, I must admit Scarborough was always one of my favourites.”

Q3: Favourite section of Scarborough course?

“I used to love the Jump, but it’s no longer there, cause there’s obviously now a chicane! Farm Bends.

But I’ve got a photo somewhere at home, you came through there flat on a 250, the thing is absolutely vertical, and you just held it flat and it came down and you came through the start-finish, and that was the biggest buzz in the world.”

Q4: Best moment thus far at Scarborough?

“It hasn’t happened yet, I’m hoping we’ve all got big smiles on our faces on Sunday night.”

Q5: All time Scarborough racing hero?

“It was Jarno Saarinen, Jarno he only came here once, I raced against in Grand Prix’s, he was on a different level, his bikes were better but he was a lot faster.

I honestly thought that I’d got the beating of him here, and I hadn’t I finished second to him. Unknown to me he’d done dozens, dozens and dozens of laps here before the meeting started, but that’s what being a professional is all about.”

Q6: Is there one machine in particular that you would like to race at Scarborough?

“Well I’ve already done it, I think the 750 Kawasaki was probably the most memorable thing I’ve raced around here.”

Q7: One word to describe Oliver’s Mount?

“Unique”

Q8: Most respected racing rival at Scarborough?

“That would have to be Sheene (Barry). We had a lot of respect for one and other, we raced hard but it was always good fun.”

Words by Stevie Rial

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