The Ian Watson Spring National Motorcycle Road Races is scheduled to take place at the Oliver’s Mount Circuit in Scarborough on Sunday 20th April, the organisers, the Auto 66 Club, are breaking with tradition as the meeting is usually run on May Day.

The switch has definitely been a step in the right direction as the club have been inundated with entries and for the first time for a few years have had to return entries as the meeting is well over subscribed.

A large contingent of Irish riders will be making the trip as the meeting will be the first “Real Road Race” of the year. William Dunlop is determined to take the honours in the four major classes entering the 125cc and 250cc on Honda’s, the 600cc on a Yamaha R6, and the Ian Watson Trophy Race on a Suzuki GSXR 1000, William will not have it all his own way with the likes of Ryan Farquhar, Mark Buckley, Dwyer Agnew, and ‘Manxie’ Chris Palmer biting at his heels.

The meeting will start off at 8.30am with practice followed by qualifying with the first of 12 races at 12.30.

Admission for adults is £15 with accompanied children under 15, and parking, free. The circuit has it’s own camp site, available on the Saturday evening and of course Scarborough has 100’s of hotels and B & B’s available for anyone that wants to make it a weekend, for hotel information the tourist board can help on 01723 383636 or www.discoveryorkshirecoast.com.

For the latest race information click on to www.auto66.com where you can also find lots of photographs from the first 50 years of racing at Oliver’s Mount.

One of the favourite classes at Scarborough is the Formula 2 sidecars, again a large entry has been received, heading the list is Nicky Crowe from the Isle of Man, Nicky is determined to be fit for the meeting after his spill at Donington Park a few weeks ago, again he will be up against the circuit regulars, Tony Thirkell, Eddie Wright, Greg Lambert and Conrad Harrison.

The Ian Watson Spring National Motorcycle Road Races also gets the 2008 Duke Road Race Rankings Series underway - the first of twenty-three rounds – which commence and conclude at the Oliver’ Mount venue.

With such a high class field in the opening round, who will leave the North Yorkshire venue as initial leader of the 2008 Rankings is difficult to surmise, as many of the competitors head towards the second round a week later at the Cookstown 100 Road Races in County Tyrone.

All the latest information on the Duke Road Race Rankings can be found on the official website, right here at www.paddockgossip.com.