THIS Saturday (26 June) sees the 37th running of the of the annual 'New Brighton prom' motorcycle races. The races use part of the public road along the Kings Parade and Coastal Drive, making this the only true road race to be held on the British mainland.

Organised by the Wirral Hundred motor club in conjunction with Wirral Leisure Services, the event caters for both modern and classic solo bikes and sidecars with around 30 races for the 150 or so riders with classes ranging from 80 cc right through to 1300 cc Superbikes.

Appearing at this year's meeting are local favourites Ian Jones from Little Neston, recently returned from the Isle of Man TT races where he lapped the famous circuit at a speed of 110 mph on his 250 cc Bradley Yamaha. Also appearing are fellow 250 cc riders Scott Davies and Dave Spencer from Wallasey .

On the more powerful bikes are local riders Alistair Howarth, Howie Taylor and Chris Farrell. The sidecar fraternity are well represented locally by such riders as SRT Motorcycle's Ray Thomas and passenger Alan Clarke (Wallasey), Steve Gilbody and Graham Jones (Neston), Paul D'Henin and Glyn Jones (Bromborough) and Wallasey's Craig Hawxwell with passenger Rod Toole.

Not that the local riders will have it all there own way! Ian Jones,winner of last year's two big races, The Charter Celebration Trophy and the Neil Williams' Trophy Race faces stiff competition. He will be doing battle with previous winners Derek Welch from Kidsgrove (Yamaha 250) and Cumbria's Gary Long on his Honda CBR600 around the demanding 1.1 mile road circuit.

Admission is free and practice starts at 9am with the first race at 12.15. A small charge will be made for car parking.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.