VMCC South Durham

The section was left a large bequest from Gerry Beer's estate which the committee decided to use for the benefit of motorcycling.

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Gerry was a keen supporter of the Isle of Man going there with his dad so we decided to support a young rider in the Manx.

 

 I (Brian) got in touch with the Manx supporters club who did not have a list of riders at that time but would make contact when they did, that was the last I heard of that.  I also spoke to an official at the A.C.U. stand at Motorcycle Live at the N.E.C. who said he was too busy would I ring him at the office.  This was all to no avail.

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Dennis Gardiner from The Northumbrian Section asked me what we were going to do with the money and I explained what had happened.

 

He knew of a young lad, James Alderson from Waterhouses near Esh who was doing well on a 750 Triumph, worked in his dad's garage and they both put everything into his racing.   He had just had two wins at Croft in the 750 class and had come second in the 1000cc race on his 750 Triumph. He sounded just the type of person we wanted to help so we set up a meeting with James and his dad. 

 

We were all impressed by James, he trains, watches his diet and is committed to his racing. He brought his bike in a van to show us, it was immaculate and sounded wonderful.  We asked about the costs of racing, £300 for a tyre, £ 500 entry fees, control fuel at the track, van and fuel costs the list goes on.  We had provisionally decided to offer James £2,000 to £2,500, we asked him his estimated costs for the rest of the season which was going to be in order of £15,000.   We were so impressed with James, his attitude and commitment that we agreed to offer him £4,000 sponsorship for the rest of this season.  I think Gerry would have approved.

 

James Alderson - Some details

 

For 2026 James is competing in the BSB Hel Performance Supersport Cup on a Triumph Street Triple 765. The Cup series allows privateer teams to compete in 8 rounds of their choice from the 11 rounds total.
 

James is also doing select rounds of No Limits Racing Premier Sport Cup class. He won all 3 of his races at Croft at the end of May.

 

History

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James took part in the Red Bull Rookies Cup selection in 2015.
 

He started racing in the British Superbike paddock in 2016 in the Standard Motostar class and progressed up to the Superstock 600 class in 2017 riding a Triumph 675 whilst also riding in the Nolimits Pirelli Superseries 600 in which he is a consistent front runner.

In 2021 he took a win in BSB Junior Superstock (formerly Superstock 600) at the Donington round of World Superbikes but was unfortunately injured which meant the rest of the season was mostly written off. Unfortunately 2022 ended with another serious injury that put him out of contention for another year.

For the years 2023 to 2025 he concentrated on No Limits Racing Pirelli Superseries 600 and was placed 4th, 2nd and 3rd overall respectively albeit missing rounds in 2023 and 2025.
In 2023 he won both the Laird of Croft and Ken Redfern trophies with NEMCRC.