Dean Harrison was in scintillating form at Oliver’s Mount this weekend as he saw off a top quality field to come home with the Gold Cup and Cock O’ The North titles.

The Bradford man signed off on a difficult season by treating his legion of fans to a superlative performance, comfortably winning all four superbike races on his YZF-R1M Yamaha as well as a clinching a supersport victory on his R6 machine.

In Saturday’s wet qualifying conditions Harrison put his R1M on the front row in second place for the Cock O’ The North and Senior races whilst he would start seventh for the David Jefferies Supersport races. The twenty six year old could have been forgiven for thinking his recent bad luck was set to continue after a first lap collision forced him to retire from the opening supersport race but that was to be the only blip in an otherwise perfect weekend.

The Cock O’ The North meeting had to be abandoned back in July but Harrison picked up where he left off in the re-run by claiming the title for the third year in a row. After shadowing Lee Johnston and Daley Mathison in the early laps the Yamaha UK man pushed his way into the lead on lap four and pulled away to win by almost eight seconds. Harrison then led the following Senior race from the start, pulling away from Linton and McGuiness before a red flag brought a premature end to proceedings with the result declared.

Sunday’s conditions couldn’t have been more contrasting with blue skies and bright sunshine replacing the sometimes torrential downpours of Saturday. A packed crowd were treated to another dominant display from the Yorkshire man however, who started off by qualifying in second place for the supersport race and on pole for the Gold Cup and Senior races.

Harrison had never won the Gold Cup having missed last year’s event due to injury but he put recent upgrades to the electronics package on his R1M Yamaha to good use by scoring a comfortable eight second victory over Ivan Linton and Lee Johnston. A fierce supersport battle loomed next with Saturday’s victor Lee Johnston but it was the Mar-Train man who came out on top adding a ‘six hundred’ win to his tally for the weekend with a five second win.

The second Senior race completed the weekend and Harrison’s confidence in his new Maxton rear suspension was obvious as he set the fastest lap of the weekend to blitz the field and record a nine second victory and a total of four wins on the YZF-R1M.



Team Principal – Tim Martin

“What a fantastic weekend and the perfect way to finish off our 2015 season. Dean was simply untouchable this weekend, he is used to winning races around here but the manner in which he did it this weekend proves how far we have come with the development of the R1M. He was able to control the races and win comfortably in every condition thrown at him which shows how good the Metzeler tyres are as well. We’ve had some challenging days this year but thanks to the support of YMUK we are really making progress now. Our bikes never missed a beat this weekend so a big thanks to Cliffy, Hubert, Martin, Andy and Connor for their hard work. We go away now to plan more testing and look forward to hitting the ground running in 2016.”

Rider – Dean Harrison

“It has been a while since we’ve had a weekend like that, apart from the coming together in the first six hundred race that was a perfect weekend. The R1M has come on leaps and bounds thanks to the Maxton rear shock and new electronics, it’s just a different bike to ride. We had every condition thrown at us but the bikes were mega and I was able to just control the races. It’s nice to finish off my year with Mar-Train like that, they’ve put so much work in all year and deserved a good weekend. Thanks to all the fans who braved Saturday’s weather, it’s always a great event, brilliant to get the Cock O’ The North again and really chuffed to lift the Gold Cup.”

Mar-Train’s first year as Yamaha UK representatives was, as expected, a challenging one as they developed the all new YZF-R1M Yamaha but ten podiums including six wins and a 130mph lap at the TT is no mean feat for a brand new motorcycle. A further nine podiums and four victories on the iconic R6 supersport rounded off by this weekend’s trophy wins set the team up well for 2016. Mar-Train would like to thank all of our sponsors, product sponsors and fans for their support throughout this season and look forward to working with you all again in 2016.