Growing up in the East Riding of Yorkshire, as a small child I used to be taken to watch scrambling by my Father, who was a great fan of Dickie Preston. We often traveled to Boltby in North Yorkshire to see the meetings. We lived not far from Scarborough and often went to watch the road races at Oliver's Mount too.
It was 1953 when the two big stars of British road racing came to Oliver's Mount. A crowd of nearly 40,000 turned up to watch my absolute favourite rider Geoff Duke take on John Surtees et al battle it out, with Duke going on to take the 500CC crown that day.
By the time I reached the age of 18 I began volunteering at the venue, helping out on the gate taking admission money at Mere Hairpin. I had a small tent as shelter and I remember one particularly windy day a gust not only blew the tent down but also caught some of the money too, which resulted in marshals scrambling about on the circuit catching the five and one pound notes!
We used to stay up till well past midnight to count the gate money and make sure all the accounts were correct.
I worked as a volunteer for about three years at the road races and after one race meeting a friend's boyfriend took me round the circuit on the back of his very fast 750cc road bike. I don't recall ever being as scared and as he pulled up I could barely get off the bike as my legs had turned to jelly!
I went back to Oliver's Mount in the 1970's with my two young sons and husband John to see local rider Mick Grant take on Barry Sheene, which again attracted huge crowds.
Wendy Jameson
Enjoy a few laps of Oliver's Mount onboard with Keith Pringle
Memory added on September 22, 2013
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