[JasonB]

Motorbike racing is to return to the Oliver's Mount road circuit 17 months after 12 people were injured in two crashes.

   
Oliver's Mount has been one of my favourite tracks, ever since I watched Timo Mäkinen tearing round the track on the 1975 R.A.C rally, on his way to his third successive win in the event. So it's great to see that it will be used again, after a couple of nasty accidents in 2017 put the track's future in doubt.

For anybody who doesn't know Oliver's Mount, it is a picturesque track which is reputedly England's only natural road racing circuit. You can see from the picture below that the track is based around a narrow ridge of elevated land, surrounded by thin strips of wooded slopes. It is characterised by it's steep elevation changes, and impossibly tight hairpins.

   

Built in 1946 the 2.41 mi (3.88 km) circuit has fantastic views over the seaside town of Scarborough, on the east coast of Yorkshire, and stands just a few hundred yards away from the North Sea.

   

The track has always been well known primarily for motor cycle racing. But it held Formula 3 races in 1955, and 1956, it held stages of the R.A.C. Rally in 1975, 78, and 83, three stages of the Roger Albert Clark classic rally, and also many hillclimbs over the years.

       

So, I'm very happy that the future of this wonderful, eccentric, and unique circuit looks very positive.
Full Story on the BBC