CHAMPION motorcyclist Bob Smith has had a prestigious race meeting named in his honour.

Bob tragically lost his life while competing in a 500cc British Championship round at Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough on September 18 1983 aged 32.

This weekend will see the Bob Smith Spring Cup National Road Races take place at the North Yorkshire circuit where the accident took place.

The renaming came about after Bob's wife Lynda visited the venue last year for the first time since his death. After meeting up with clerk of the course, Peter Hillaby, circuit organisers Auto 66 Club decided it would be a fitting tribute to his memory to name a trophy and meeting, which Bob won in 1981, after him.

Bob was born in Prescot in 1951 and began racing in 1974 on a Norton with his brother-in-law Malc Cook, who died the following year in a coal mining accident.

Living in Fleet Lane, Parr, with Lynda, he was a self-employed diesel fitter while working his way up to becoming one of the country's top motorcycle racers in the late 70s and early 80s.

He won the ACU British Solo Championship in 1981, was three times winner of the Cock of the North. His Spring Cup victory in 1981 saw him famously beat two-time world champion Barry Sheene in front of 30,000 race fans.

Bob was also a member of the victorious 1982 British Transatlantic team captained by Barry Sheene against the American team.

"He was always more into the fans and he would prefer to talk to them about the bikes and what he had done," said Lynda, who will present the trophy at the event.

"That's why people liked him, he had time to stand and talk to them."

In his career Bob rode a variety of motorcycles including including the Gary Bryan RGB Weslake, winning the first ever UK Battle of the Twins at Donington Park.

He also rode the Kenny’s Sports Motorcycles Ducati at Suzuka in Japan with teammate Tony Rutter and raced at Daytona USA for Bryan Racing on the Weslake.

In the late 70s he travelled further afield to Australia and competed in the Swan International Series under the Marmac racing banner competing against some of the top riders in the world including Will Hartog.

Following Bob's death, Sheene wrote in his Motorcycle Weekly article in tribute: "He was quiet and unassuming. It was his results that did his talking and I for one will miss him."

Lynda, 62, added: "I am really proud that after so many years that he has been remembered by so many people.

"It's a fitting tribute that they have decided to name the race after him."

The Bob Smith Spring Cup National Road Races take place at Oliver's Mount on Saturday, April 16 and Sunday 17.