The biggest sidecar event ever to be held in Scotland comes to East Fortune next weekend as Pencaitland's favourite son is remembered 30 years after his tragic death.

The Jock Taylor Memorial Race Weekend takes place at the county circuit next Saturday and Sunday (July 14 and 15) and remembers Pencaitland's legendary former sidecar world champion, who was killed racing in Finland in 1982, aged just 28.

A bumper sidecar tournament in memory of Taylor is held every year at Fife circuit Knockhill, but with this year's major anniversary the race has been moved to Taylor's home circuit of East Fortune, where he first started his racing career some 40 years ago.

This year's memorial race has attracted its biggest ever field - more than 30 sidecars have already been confirmed as taking part, featuring the cream of Scotland's sidecar racers, as well as top racers from the British circuit.

Among those confirmed as taking part is the English racer Tim Reeves, a three-time sidecar world champion, while another racer joining in the action is top Scottish driver Scott Lawrie, who holds the lap record for sidecars at East Fortune.

Carrying the banner for East Lothian will be Haddington's own Davie Wrinn, who has started the season in fine form and would love nothing more than to claim victory in the most prestigious race of all.

The highlight of the weekend - organised by the Scottish Sidecar Racing Club, in conjunction with East Fortune's home club, the Melville Motor Cycle Club - will be the Jock Taylor Memorial Race itself on the Sunday, while a number of other sidecar races will also take place.

In addition, past winners of the Jock Taylor Trophy will perform parade laps for the crowd.

Barbara Cockburn, secretary of the Scottish Sidecar Racing Club, hopes to see a huge crowd come down for the weekend to enjoy top racing and pay their respects to one of East Lothian's foremost sporting heroes.

She said: "After 30 years, Jock is still, and always will be, remembered as the ambassador and friend to everyone in the sidecar world of racing." Special collectors' programmes will be on offer at the weekend.

After starting his sidecar career as a passenger when aged only 19 in 1974, Taylor entered his first race as a driver the following year.

It didn't take long for him to achieve great success, claiming the Scottish Sidecar Championship in 1977. He followed that up with back-to-back British Championships, claiming that title in 1979 and 1980.

But his greatest success was to come in the Sidecar World Championship in 1980, after he and partner Benga Johansson (both pictured) won four out of seven races to take the title.

Taylor also enjoyed great success in the world famous Isle of Man TT races, competing in 10 races and winning four, including setting a lap record in 1982 that would stand for seven years.

His untimely death came at a World Championship race at an extremely wet Imatra, Finland, on August 15, 1982. While riding in third position, Taylor's machine spun off and crashed into a telegraph pole, the Pencaitland man left trapped. Rescue crews were working to free him when another team spun off at the same place and ploughed into the wreckage, tragically killing Taylor.

A memorial to him was erected in Pencaitland in 2006.