VETERAN motorcycle racers are holding a memorial competition in aid of cancer research, with only over-50s allowed to take part.
The two-day spectacle in Lanarkshire this weekend will take place four miles from Abington at the the Tinto Moto Park in Rigside, in memory of one of Scotland's greatest ambassadors for the sport, Robbie Allan, who died last year aged 72.
The Robbie Allan 50/50 Classic Memorial Event will take place today and tomorrow to raise funds for MacMillan Cancer Support, with world motocross champions Graham Noyce, Dave Thorpe and Neil Hudson making guest appearances.
The competition promises to "celebrate the golden age of scrambling" by pitting rider against one another on pre-1965 dirt bikes, including the Twinshock Enduro and Twinshock Trials today and featuring the Twinshock Scramble tomorrow.
Mr Allan's 16-year-old grandson, Robert Ford, from Lesmahagow, will be attending along with his family to display the Honda CRF 450 that his grandfather famously rode when he competed at the Dakar Rally.
Among the competitors are Andrew Johnstone, 66, on his 1964 Greeves Challenger motorbike, and John McCrink, 60, on his 1964 Dot Dempon motorbike.
There will also be a quiz, raffle, auction, bike display, guest interviews and a past masters' parade.
The event comes less than a year after Mr Allan's death, at his home in Boghead, South Lanarkshire, in August last year. He was an accomplished motorcycle racer and ambassador for motorcycle sport in Scotland who was a skilled competitor in various forms of bike racing, switching seamlessly from scrambles to road racing while also competing successfully in grass track racing, hill-climbs and trials and riding in the Scottish Six Days Trial.
He was born in Aberdeenshire and initially worked as a bus mechanic after leaving school before entering his first motorcycle scramble in 1957, aged 16, and going on to develop the sport in Scotland when he joined the Scottish Auto Cycle Union.
He took runner-up spots or third place in the Scottish Championships on 12 occasions, before concentrating on road racing. For more than 20 years he competed in the TT and Manx GP on the Isle of Man and in 1992, at the invitation of a sponsor, he raced in Australia and New Zealand excelling at the fast circuit at Bathurst NSW.
In 2006, aged 65, he became the first Scot to compete in the motorcycle class at the Dakar where he was, in his own words, "by far the oldest in the event".
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