THE skies may have been grey and overcast, but it mattered not to the thousands of motorcycle fans who made their annual pilgrimage to Croft Circuit.

One of the biggest crowds in years converged on the circuit near Darlington yesterday for the third round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship.

Those there for the third of three days of racing witnessed dramatic crashes, immense bravery and no little emotion as some of the top riders in the country and beyond battled it out for silverware.

The circuit is the focal point for motorsport in the region and generations of fans have helped make this event one of the highlights of the sporting calendar.

One of those present yesterday was 42-year-old Stuart Walton, of Low Willington, Crook, County Durham, who was there with his father, Clifford, 70, of Bishop Auckland.

"I have been coming since I was about five-years-old," Mr Walton said. "My dad brought us here. There is a picture somewhere in the house of us sat next to one of the bikes and ever since then I have followed them.

"I think it's the excitement of it that appeals to me. It is close racing, anything can happen, you can get close up to meet the riders, whereas you cant with footballers, for example. It's nice to get up close and personal."

Mr Walton said that he was a big fan of the circuit itself.

"You can walk right around it, you are close to the action, not miles away, compared to some other tracks," he said. "It is an exciting track. We have seen today that anything can happen, a little bit of rain and it totally changes the race.

"It is good for the North-East and I hope Croft continues to host the British Superbikes and the Touring Cars as well. It brings people to the North-East and helps generate money."

Circuit manager, Tracey Morley, said it had been a terrific way in which to start this year's headline events.

"Even despite the odd bit of drizzle on race day morning, our spectator banks overlooking the first two corners all the way round to far side of the circuit at the Tower and Sunny Out corners were full of people," she said. "To all those public who attended - and we know many travelled some distance to be here - we'd like to thank them for contributing to a really wonderful atmosphere all weekend and for their co-operation with all our staff here at the circuit.

"This has been one of our most successful events in recent years in terms of crowd size and we very much hope everyone enjoyed the on-track action as well as the entertainment off it. We very much look forward to seeing them back at our other major events during 2011."