TRAFFIC police are planning one of their biggest safety operations in the run-up to one of the region's biggest sporting events.

Officers from six forces will be awaiting the thousands of cars and motorbikes expected to head for North Yorkshire this weekend.

The latest round of the British Superbikes Championship is being held at Croft, near Darlington, and it is anticipated there will be large crowds.

And with so much extra traffic on the road, the police operation is in direct response to the fact that 29 motorcyclists died on the county's roads last year.

The North Yorkshire force will be acting with colleagues from Cleveland, Durham, Cumbria, Lancashire and Humberside forces.

They will deploy marked and unmarked police bikes and cars, speed camera vans, and extra patrols and speed checks across the county and beyond.

"The racing on the track will be great, but that's the only place for risk-taking and high speeds," said the county's head of road policing, Superintendent Martin Deacon.

This year's hard-line policy has helped cut the rider fatality toll. There have been 11 this year, compared to 16 by the same time last year.

But Supt Deacon said that there was still work to be done. "That's still 11 too many," he said.

The operation starts tomorrow evening. Thousands of spectators will be arriving to camp in the Croft area, ready for practice on Saturday, and the Superbike meeting on Sunday.

Many more are expected on Sunday, and a detailed traffic management scheme has been drawn up to ease visitors' entry and exit to the rural circuit.