THE Scarborough International Bike Week Festival reaches its climax this weekend as 81 riders - including six from North Yorkshire - compete for the traditional "Cock o' the North" title.

The list of competitors includes Scarborough's own Tony Flinton, who will be gunning for glory on an 80 Honda RS.

York rivals Ian Ward and Philip Shaw will be riding a 340 Apex Ducati MK1 and 247 Suzuki T20, respectively, while Mick Jackson, of Gilling West, will be on an 80 Suzuki RM.

Phil Stead and Paul Mackley will also be going along from Northallerton, the former returning after a year's absence hopeful of repeating his successful open class ride of 1998.

A large chunk of entrants come from other parts of Yorkshire, though the majority will be making their way from further afield, around Great Britain and Ireland.

They include a number of past winners and top Isle of Man TT stars, such as Ian Lougher, Dean Ashton, Jason Griffiths, Nigel Davis and former British 125cc champion Chris Palmer.

The meeting also includes rounds of the UK Classic Road Race Championships, and there will be four full-grid sidecar races over the weekend.

Practice starts at 9am on both days with racing beginning at 1pm tomorrow and 11am on Sunday.

The tarmac racing at the festival started yesterday with a speed hill climb at Oliver's Mount, to be followed by a sprint meeting today.

Poor weather forced a number of events last weekend to be called off, though the Moto Cross event at Oliver's Mount on Tuesday was one event that was not disrupted, seeing Grand Prix contender Ryan Voase take the victory in the experts' race after a battle with Whitby's James Noble. Scar-borough's Peter Hopper was third.