One of the highlights of this year’s Vintage Motor Cycle Club Festival of Jurby will be a display by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF), commemorating all those who have lost their lives serving in the Royal Air Force (RAF), or its predecessor the Royal Flying Corps.

The BBMF is a regular RAF unit, manned by Service personnel and funded by the Ministry of Defence. Those who serve with the Flight feel extremely privileged to work with and to fly the BBMF collection of historic aircraft, which are all precious artefacts of the RAF’s and the Nation’s aviation heritage.

At precisely 2pm on Sunday 28th August, the skies over Jurby will roar to the sound of a Hurricane, a Spitfire and a Lancaster bomber in remembrance of ‘The Few’ who defended our skies during the Summer of 1940.

The Lancaster is one of only two left flying in the world – the other is in Canada – and to see it in flight is one of the most evocative and emotional aviation sights.

The Spitfire and Hurricane single-seater fighters were at the forefront of the Battle of Britain and while the Spitfire has tended to dominate the limelight as the most iconic fighter of WWII, most veterans pointed out that the Hurricane was the real work-horse of the battle, which raged over the skies of England between July and October 1940.

A staggering 2585 aircrew lost their lives during the four-month battle and 1977 aircraft were destroyed. The ‘Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’ appears in displays all over the country during the Summer months in honour and remembrance of those who gave their lives.

The BBMF display, which has been arranged by the Department of Economic Development, is just one of the many attractions at the Festival of Jurby. The airfield circuit at Jurby will also host the incredible sounds and sights of a plethora of stunning rare and classic motorcycles, many being piloted by famous riders. There will also be static displays of many more machines as well as stalls, refreshment tents and live entertainment.

The festival, run by the Isle of Man chapter of the VMCC, is an integral part of the Classic TT presented by Bennetts and is one of the biggest events in the organisation’s annual calendar as well as being the biggest annual one day event on the Isle of Man.

The Festival takes place at Jurby airfield in the North-West of the Island and runs from 10am to 5pm. Tickets are available on the gate and are priced at £5 for adults with free entry for children under the age of 16.

David Cretney, Isle of Man Government Political Member responsible for Tourism and Motorsport commented:

“It is entirely fitting that the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight will take place at Jurby given that the RAF were based there between 1939 and 1963. The memorial flight will really complement an excellent day’s entertainment lined up for for the VMCC Festival at Jurby this year, which has grown to become a huge part of the Festival of Motorcycling.”

He continued:

“I’m delighted that the DED team has been able to facilitate the RAF display coming to the Island as well as the star international riders.”

Conditions on the Isle of Man were definitely cooler than last night but the pace was heating up in the Superbike class with Dean Harrison posting the fastest time of the week to date – 123.580mph - on the Silicone Engineering Kawasaki.

The session got underway promptly at 6.20 and Michael Rutter on the Harris Yamaha was first to the first timing point at Glen Helen, three seconds ahead of Harrison. The Midlands based rider had extended that to almost six seconds by Ramsey but was reported to have retired shortly after at the Waterworks, leaving Harrison to top the board with his opening lap.

Bruce Anstey also completed his first lap on the Valvoline Racing by Padgetts Motorcycles YZR 500 with 121.18 while Danny Webb (120.12) clocked his first 120mph of the meeting on the Team Classic Suzuki XR69.

Gary Johnson (Team York Suzuki) and James Hillier (Greenall Racing Kawasaki) both moved into the overall top five leaderboard in the Superbike class with impressive opening laps of 122.56mph and 122.12mph respectively while Jamie Coward on the Mistral Racing Kawasaki also posted his first 120mph lap of the meeting.

Meanwhile Michael Dunlop, after some chassis changes, posted a relatively sedate time – for him - of 120.51 and Ivan Lintin, another rider who was high up on the overall leaderboard, was reported as an early retirement at Ballacraine.

In the Lightweight Classic TT class Manx rider Ryan Kneen posted the fastest lap of the class on the night with a lap of 111.63 and moved into the top three overall in qualifying, behind Ian Lougher’s time from Tuesday and Bruce Anstey’s from Wednesday. Davy Morgan and Phil Harvey also clocked laps of over 109mph.

However with riders in both classes still on the course the session was red flagged from sectors 1 to 8 following an incident at Churchtown on the approach to Ramsey in the concurrent Manx Grand Prix qualifying session and the session was brought to a halt shortly before 6.45.

It was a shame for Dean Harrison as the Bradford rider was on a charge on his second – flying - lap and had reached Glen Helen in a time of 4.28.077, five seconds faster than Rutter’s time for the sector on his opening lap and ten seconds ahead of his own time on the first lap.

Unfortunately, while the road was being swept ahead of the Classic TT Junior and Senior Classic TT session, the mist came in on the mountain section and Clerk of the Course Gary Thompson ended the session at 7.20pm.

As a result of this evening’s shortened session, Gary Thompson announced, in a change to tomorrow’s final qualifying session schedule, that the Classic TT Senior and Junior machines would have first use of the track followed by the Superbikes and Lightweight machines.

Classic TT Grandstand tickets are available for Friday’s final qualifying session priced at £5. All prior qualifying sessions are free for the main Grandstand. There are also race day tickets available for both Classic TT race days on Saturday 27th and Monday 29th August as well as VIP and Platinum hospitality tickets. To purchase tickets go to iomtt.com or phone Duke Marketing on (00 44) 1624 640011

The FIM Endurance World Championship draws to a close this weekend (27 August) as the final round of the 2016 season takes place in Germany – the 8 Hours of Oschersleben. It is a race close to the hearts of the Honda Endurance Racing team, and its three endurance specialists, as it was this round in 2014 where the squad scored its maiden EWC win.

With the World Championship title firmly in the team’s sights Freddy Foray, Julien Da Costa and Sébastien Gimbert are sitting seventh overall – only 17 points away from the title leaders. With 35 points available for the win, the pressure is on for the team and the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP for the race win to secure the 2016 EWC title.

It’s been a mixed season for the squad with one podium secured at Portimão and two, top-20 finishes at Le Mans and Suzuka. However, the crew and riders know what it takes to win at Oschersleben, so are even more determined to prove their winning capability again at the 3.66km German circuit.

Qualifying for the 8 Hours of Oschersleben takes place on Thursday and Friday, with the race starting at 1400 (GMT +1) on Saturday 27 August. 

MotoScotland is delighted and very proud to have managed to have achieved government recognition (Department for Transport and Driver Vehicle Standards Agency) for off road motorcycle training. MotoScotland is the only off road motorbike training centre in the UK to have its training recognised as advanced rider training for road riders by council road safety departments and insurers.  

In 2014 they approached the DfT & DVSA to invite them to participate in our unique training so they could fully understand the value to rider road safety. In 2015, government officials attended the training and immediately recognised how valuable this type of training was. During early 2016, they consulted with them to determine the key benefits to rider road safety and in June 2016, MotoScotland received written confirmation that new information/pages had been added to both government department websites.

Why this is very important for the UK includes: 

· Road safety for motorcyclists could be improved by riders taking this type of training – this could help reduce the growing number of rider accidents/deaths

· Riders are now being recommended to do off road training by the government – a significant shift in the perception of off roading

· Land (for which access is very difficult to acquire in the UK) is now identified as a necessary resource to help riders learn off road riding skills to improve road safety

· More riders are likely to engage in this training with this type of official endorsement

· More riders are likely to subsequently then try related competitive sports, e.g. trials, motocross, enduro, etc.

· The more riders engage with this type of highly physical activity, the fitter they will become – therefore, UK problems with obesity will be aided by this shift in perception

· It should have a positive impact on bike sales and ancillary items as more people engage with off road riding

HARLEY AND THE DAVIDSONS will premiere exclusively in the UK on Discovery Channel, 9pm, Friday 9th, Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September
(Sky 520, Virgin 250, BT TV 322)

Teaming up with Discovery Channel for this “Bikes on the Box” premier, and together with other goodies to include from Warr’s HD, Ace Cafe London has some exclusive “Discovery Harley & the Davidsons” items up for grabs as raffle prizes at the Ace, on both the cafes monthly Harley Night, next on evening of Thursday 25th August, and on the cafes forthcoming annual Harley Day, Sunday 28th August!

For more information about Ace Cafe London or what's on, check out: www.ace-cafe-london.com