Road Racing’s Great Races – 2013 Steve Henshaw International Gold Cup

Road Racing’s Great Races – 2013 Steve Henshaw International Gold Cup

Back in 2013 at Oliver’s Mount, the 63rd Scarborough Gold Cup meeting, saw a mix of dry, wet and damp conditions around the mount.

For the feature race of the meeting, the Steve Henshaw International Gold Cup, the conditions could only be described as tricky.

Pole sitter Guy Martin made a steady start into Mere Hairpin on lap 1, but it was John McGuinness on the HM Plant/Padgetts Motorcycles backed Honda, who slotted into race lead, whilst team mate Bruce Anstey and Ian Lougher where involved in a first lap incident.

At the end of lap one, McGuinness lead Michael Dunlop, Dean Harrison and Guy Martin, with not much in it between all four of them.

Lap two would see Harrison slide out of contention at Mere Hairpin, this elevated Martin into second place, whilst James Cowton was impressing on his own teams CBR 600 Honda as he held fourth position.

Following the culmination of lap two, drama struck on the third lap as McGuinness became the latest high profile faller, following a high side just after Mere Hairpin.

Dunlop who was closing in on his fellow Honda mounted competitor on the previous lap, was now into race lead and with a firm advantage, over new second place inductee Guy Martin.

From here the Supersport TT lap record holder, kept up a strong pace, as he showcased his proven wet weather prowess.

At the end of the six lap race, he crossed the line to become the first Dunlop to win the Scarborough Gold Cup.

A unique achievement for a rider, who then and has since proved the impossible is possible on many an occasion.

Guy Martin finished in second place, over 11 seconds behind, as James Cowton finalised the podium finishers.

Mick Goodings was fourth, Dave Hewson was fifth, the top six was completed by Keith Pringle.

img_12541

It’s fair to say at the time in 2013, not many people thought Michael Dunlop was going to add Gold Cup victory, to his already stellar roads CV.

In my opinion his 2013 Gold Cup success, is amongst the greatest performances of his pure road racing career to date.

2013 Steve Henshaw International Gold Cup – Race Results:

1 Michael Dunlop
2 Guy Martin
3 James Cowton
4 Mick Goodings
5 Dave Hewson
6 Keith Pringle
7 Callum Laidlaw
8 James Neesom
9 Robert Wilson
10 Gary Graves
11 Paul Gartland
12 Martin Harrison
13 Christian Slater

Words by Stevie Rial

administrator
Welcome, Here at Road Racing News we pride ourselves in supplying the best and latest news on Pure Road Racing including Race Reports, Race Reviews, Interviews and live updated news. Our Aim is to supply the latest Pure Road Racing news as quickly as possible to all enthusiast of the best sport in the world. Your fantastic support and following is why we do this! Road Racing News Team.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *