Here are some photos from the June rounds of the 2025 Darley Moor championships, taken by official Darley photographer Tony Else...

Father's Day was the date for the third Darley Moor event of 2025, so we made sure that there was plenty of food (and beer!) available for the weekend. We arrived on the Saturday afternoon and leisurely setup in the sunshine before watching some of the WorldSBK action on TV.

​We decided to set ourselves some goals/objectives for the event, in an attempt to try to get back closer to where we have previously been - we set targets to get back into the 59-second bracket on the Kawasaki Supersport machine and back into the "minute flat" (1:00) on the Aprilia.

Our first qualifying session was on the Aprilia where the session would give us grid positions for the Darley Cup and Supertwins races. In the busy session we struggled to find some space but did set a time of 1:02.55 on our single clear lap, which qualified us in 5th position for both grids.

After a short break we headed out for the Open 600 qualifying. For this meeting we had treated "the old girl" to some new dry tyres and front brake pads, so the plan was to spend the opening couple of laps bedding those in. The red flag was shown on the second lap, so we had a brief interlude before restarting. We managed a 1:00.96 lap which qualified us 7th on the grid of 25 riders. ​On our cooldown lap we noticed some riders approaching quickly, so went wide at the hairpin to get out of the way - but Tim Walsh had already decided to go around the outside which resulted in the unusual clash shown in the video below. Fortunately everyone was fine and I popped around to apologise for the confusion.

Round 5
Out into the races and the first race was Open 600. A good start saw us enter the Wilsons Chicane in 5th position. From there we just tried to put in clean laps. Tim Walsh was the first to overtake us, followed later by Jordan Poole, but with Tim having some machine issues we finished the race in 6th position - having set a lap time of 59.33! That was our first objective achieved  :-)

Next up was the Darley Cup race. We entered the chicane in 7th position and worked our way up to 5th position by the flag, setting a 1:01.39 lap time along the way.

With only one race between the Darley Cup and Supertwins races, it wasn't long until we were back on track. A poor start saw us enter the chicane in 6th position, but we managed to work our way back up to 4th place before a little spray of water caught our attention, so we pulled out of the race to investigate. A rare DNF for us!

It turned out that due to the delays on the start-line some radiator water had been pushed to the expansion bottle - and there just wasn't enough capacity in the overflow bottle... After adjusting the water volume to more appropriate levels we were ready to use the bike again for the remainder of the meeting.

Round 6
After the lunch break we headed out for the second Open 600 race. We were 7th into the chicane and during the race found ourselves in a group battle for 5th position - but neither us nor Peter Fell could get passed the Triumph-mounted Antony Lewis. We crossed the line in 7th position with a best lap of 59.79.

Into the Darley Cup race and some bumping and barging saw us leave the chicane in 10th position. Throughout the race we moved up to 6th position and set a fastest lap of 1:01.10 - which was tantalisingly close to our target time for the day. Just a lack of clear track prevented us from going any quicker.

Our final race of the day was the 10-lap Supertwins race. Another poor start saw us enter the chicane in 7th position, but on the opening lap we overtook Aron Redmond to move into 6th position. On lap 5 we went passed Simon Cooper and on lap 6 overtook Peter Fell. At the start of lap 8 we managed to sneak passed Dave Glossop and into 3rd place. After a couple more laps we took the chequered flag and secured our podium finish! Along the way we had set a best lap time of 1:00.51 (and 4 of the laps were in the 1:00-bracket) - meaning that we had achieved our other objective for the meeting!  :-)

​At the end of a fun weekend at the track we were happy to celebrate Father's Day with a trophy - a feat that is becoming rarer these days!

We now have four weeks to prepare for our next outing, which will be the picturesque woodland circuit of Aberdare Park on Saturday-Sunday 12th-13th July. This event will be televised, so with any luck we might even get a few seconds of airtime...  ;-)
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Here are some more photos from Rounds 3 & 4 of the 2025 Darley Moor championships, taken by Colin Lindley.

Here are some photos from the May rounds of the 2025 Darley Moor championships, taken by official Darley photographer Tony Else...

The recent good weather continued to bless us at Darley Moor and delivered a weekend of beautiful sunshine! And even though we didn't take home any trophies from this meeting, we did walk away with some sunburn...

Having decided that 159 laps had used the best of our tyres, we decided to treat the Aprilia to some new rubber (as well as front brake pads) for this meeting. We decided to run a simplified setup this weekend, with only one machine and no awning - making the set-up (and clear-down) a much more enjoyable affair.

​After the usual scrutineering/sign-on activities were complete, we completed a lap of the circuit (with the girls on rollerblades) before watching some MotoGP sprint race and NW200 action. In case you were wondering, Dave Snr was unable to attend this meeting due to being on a Caribbean cruise.

Out into our single qualifying session on the Sunday morning, we decided to take it easy for the opening laps to bed in the tyres and pads. After a couple of laps we decided to go quicker but then the red flag was shown. After sitting there for around six minutes the session was restarted, so we took a couple of laps to make sure everything was up to temperature before pushing on. We did an initial lap of 1'04.12 and then the chequered flag was out... So we ended up qualifying 7th on the Darley Cup grid and 6th in the Supertwin class (9th on the combined grid), which wasn't a great result.

With a big time gap until our races we took the opportunity to buy some ice-cream and watch some of the racing.

Round 3
Our first race of the day was the Darley Cup. A decent start saw us enter the Wilsons chicane in 5th position, just behind Nick Clare. Whilst we were trying to get passed Nick, Jonathan Trezins popped passed us at the hairpin on lap 2 to demote us to 6th position. Nick ran wide at the hairpin on lap 4 which allowed us to move back up to 5th position, where we started to chase down Jonathan. Then on lap 7 Jonathan ran across the Wilsons chicane which allowed us to move into 4th position. From there we set our best lap of the race (1'01.31) and crossed the line in 4th position.

With just a one-race-gap between the Darley Cup and Supertwin races, the "one-man support team" (aka Dave Jnr) hurriedly popped on the tyre warmers, refuelled the bike, cleaned the barrage of bugs from the helmet visor and screen, then drank as much water as possible before being called up for the Supertwin race.

A super-quick change of the light caught out a number of riders, including ourselves. We entered the Wilsons chicane in 9th position (our grid position) and moved up to 8th position by the end of the opening lap. From there we caught and passed one person per lap for the next four laps, setting a best lap of 1'01.25 along the way. On the final lap we made our way onto the back of Stephen Taylor and momentarily passed him before he let off the brakes and swept across the front of our bike (leaving a small gap of ~8 inches). We composed ourselves, fumbled through the corner and crossed the finish line just 0.23 of a second behind Stephen. When we returned back to the paddock we discovered that we had been battling for 3rd place on the final corner! If we would have known then we might have tried to attack a but more, but so be it - we had secured another 4th placed finish, and captured some decent onboard footage...  ;-)

A lunchtime trip inside the refurbished Chequered Flag Cafe showed that we now feature within some of their framed photos  :-)

Round 4
After another big gap in proceeding we started the second round of races, with the Darley Cup race up first. A poor start saw us enter the Wilsons chicane in 6th position, just behind  Jonathan Trezins. We followed Jonathan for the majority of the race until - on lap 7 in an almost identical repeat of the opening race - he ran across the Wilsons chicane which allowed us to move up to 5th position. On the last lap we managed to set our best lap time of 1:01.62, as we crossed the line in 5th position.

​After another quick turnaround by the "one-man support team" it was time for the final race of the day, the Supertwin race. A poor start saw us enter the Wilsons chicane in 10th position. We were moving forward at a rate of one-position-per-lap when the red flag was shown due to a faller at Townleys. The first part of the race is shown below.

This meeting has reinforced my understanding that since announcing our "retirement from championship competition" - or "semi-retirement" or whatever else it should be called - that we have 'lost' something and at the moment I'm not sure whether it will return or not. As mentioned earlier, there are no trophies from this meeting (albeit we did get close) but we did get a new HelloDave Racing hoodie (thanks Dave!), some almighty sunburn - and had great fun from a 'social event' and 'family day out' perspective!

Our next time out on track will be Darley Moor Rounds 5 & 6 on Sunday 15th June (which is Father's Day). With Dave Snr back in the country, we may even try to make a return with both machines...

Here are some more photos from the opening rounds of the 2025 Darley Moor championships, taken by Colin Lindley.