FOUR riders from the area will be keeping the Furness flag flying at the Hawkstone Park track near Telford this weekend at the first round of the prestigious Bridgestone British Masters Motocross Series.

Dalton’s Greg Fisher will be defending the title he won there last year and Barrow’s Deejay Walker is to contest the series on his new Yamaha.

Thankfully, he has no ill-effects from getting run over on the Preston Docks track a couple of weeks ago.

Askam schoolboy Jamie Keith, who did so well in the recent indoor Arena Cross Championships will be contesting the junior classes too, with another schoolboy champion, Finley Pickering, also from Askam.

Let’s hope the weather which forced organisers to cancel the Haverigg meeting last weekend holds off and the lads can bring more silverware back to Furness.

At the end of this month, the other major championship, the Acerbis National Series, kick-starts on the Fat Cats track, near Doncaster.

Busy boys, these motocross riders.

* THE first area bike meet of the year took place outside Pennington Village Hall on Sunday afternoon.

Neil McDougall, who ran the popular Bardsea Bike Nights, relocated to Pennington, following complaints from just one Bardsea resident, despite raising funds for the Air Ambulance Service.

Neil organised a one-off 'Pancake Sunday' to get the season rolling.

Mike Bibby, from MBR Racing here in Barrow, took along the 1,000cc BMW which local sponsor Graham Wilcock is to provide for Manxman Michael Evans to ride in this year’s Isle of Man TT.

Ulverston’s Dave ‘Rocket’ Peters had his awesome 600bhp turbo-charged, nitrous oxide-burning dragster on display too.

Members of the local Blood Bike group, who do such a sterling job ferrying urgent blood supplies around the local hospitals, were on hand to chat to visiting motorcyclists.

Proceeds from the afternoon went to the group.

The regular bike nights will be held on the last Tuesday of each month between 5pm and 9pm, starting on April 20.

Maybe see you at that one?

* GOOD news for race fans: it looks like racing will be taking place on the Oliver’s Mount circuit at Scarborough this year after all.

The organising club, the Auto66 Club, had their course licence revoked following two serious accidents involving spectators in 2017.

However, popular TV presented Andy Kershaw, multiple TT winners Mick Grant, Nick Jefferies and Eddie Roberts, who was instrumental in saving Mallory Park from the scrapheap, have been granted a new licence.

They have assured Scarborough Council that new safety measures, insisted by the Auto Cycle Union, will be in place in time for racing this year.

A new club, the 243 Road Racing Association, will now be running the meetings.

Two are planned: the Barry Sheene Classic on 27-28 July, and the Gold Cup Meeting on 28-29 September.

Oliver’s Mount was never one of my favourite circuits, but it will be good to see racing take place on the demanding 2.25-mile hillside track, which first heard the roar of motorcycle engines back in 1946.

* THE Vintage Motorcycle Club, who boast over 14,000 members nationwide, have given their approval for a local branch to be formed here in Furness.

The club does have a branch in the north of the county, but a local group of vintage enthusiasts have felt the need for a branch here in South Cumbria.

I’ll give more details next.