2025 Stars at Darley - Race Review

After a break of almost three months, we returned to racing action at the prestigious "Stars at Darley" event. As usual, it turned out to be a fantastic event and - with the weather conditions being almost perfect - many race records (and even the outright lap record) fell throughout the weekend...

We arrived to the circuit around 2pm on the Friday and setup in our preferred paddock spot, which gave us plenty of time to chat with everyone prior to the completion of our usual admin tasks. The shortening nights made it seem later than it was, so we ended up heading to bed earlier than usual.

Ready to roll...

Saturday
Waking nice and refreshed, we were out in the very first qualifying session for the Open 600 qualifying. Not having ridden for a while we planned to take the first few laps easy to get back into the swing of things, but the red flag was shown a few minutes into the session. After a wait of 6-8 minutes, the session was restarted. We found it difficult to navigate through the heavy traffic and when we finally found some space the chequered flag was shown... "If only we had one more lap!" we exclaimed... Our best lap was a 1:04.26 which placed us 16th on the grid of 25 riders.

After a short break we went out in the combined Supertwins and Darley Cup qualifying session. We took more care to ensure that we set a respectable lap time during this session and set a 1:01.74 which qualified us 5th (of 16 riders) for the Darley Cup races, and 5th (of 9 riders) for the Supertwins races.

We then took the opportunity to watch the Stars at Darley qualifying session, where reigning "Stars at Darley" winner Charlie Nesbitt took pole position with a track-record lap of 51.66 seconds - which was 2.20 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor!

It was then time for our first race of the weekend, Darley Cup Race 1. We were 7th into the Wilsons chicane and moved up to 6th position at the hairpin on the opening lap. From there we tried to chase down Dave Glossop and on lap 4 we made the move and took 5th place, where we stayed until the flag. We set a fastest lap of 1:00.87 along the way, which matched our meeting targets of "being in the 1:00s on the Aprilia" and "being in the 59s on the Kawasaki".

Photo by John Lockett

After a quick refuel, we headed straight out into Supertwins Race 1. A woeful start saw us enter the chicane in 10th position! We managed to recover a couple of positions on the opening lap, followed by another couple of places on lap 3, which elevated us to our eventual 6th place finishing position. Our fastest lap time was 1:00.74.

Photo by Graham Mallen

It was now time for a change of machinery, so we hopped on the Kawasaki for Open 600 Race 1. Starting from 16th on the grid meant that we would have our work cut out. We finished the opening lap in 14th position, but then struggled to make our way through the pack and were circulating in 1:01s. On the penultimate lap we managed to make a move into 13th position and with the clear track we were able to set a best lap of 59.29 on the final lap. We crossed the line in 13th position and had some thinking to do regarding how to get inside the Top 10 in the second race...

In the main "Stars" race it was a one-man show as pole-sitter Charlie Nesbitt took a start-to-finish victory by 24.51 seconds, setting a new all-time lap record of 51.54 along the way!

The lap-record-holder's machinery

Our next race was Darley Cup Race 2. After entering the chicane in 7th position, we moved into 6th position at the end of lap 3 and then had a fairly lonely race - finishing in 6th position. Our best lap time was 1:00.85.

Photo by Mark and Milena Photography

After a quick turnaround we started Supertwins Race 2. At the end of the opening lap we were in 7th position, which is where we would finish after another lonely race. Our lap time of 1:00.59 showed that we were able to consistently be where we wanted to be lap-time-wise, but with other riders starting quicker (and/or lapping quicker) than us, we were unable to fight for top positions - but Top 5 finishes did look to be possible...

Photo by Graham Mallen

Our final race of Sturday was Open 600 Race 2. A decent start meant that we were in 12th position at the end of the opening lap. After picking off riders one-by-one we managed to progress to 8th position at the chequered flag! Our fastest lap time was 59.55.

With a busy day of racing completed, we setup the laptop in the awning to watch the WorldSBK action from the day - then had another early night...

​
Sunday
We awoke on Sunday to a beautiful morning with low-lying fog. It was very picturesque but did leave everything damp with dew. Fortunately, the sun soon came out and dried everything up.

​As Sunday was treated as a completely-new race day, qualifying took place again. This probably worked to our favour, due to our poor Saturday qualifying - so we headed out and tried to do a bit better... 

In Open 600 qualifying we managed to set a respectable time of 1:01.43, which qualified us in 11th position. An improvement on the previous day! In the combined Darley Cup and Supertwins qualifying session we set a 1:01.01 lap, which qualified us 5th on the Darley Cup grid and 6th in Supertwins.

Our first race was Darley Cup Race 1, where we entered the chicane in 7th position. By the end of lap 2 we had moved up to 6th position and had a big gap ahead of us. Little by little we were gaining on BMW-mounted Dave Glossop and into the final corner on the final lap we were able to move ahead one position, taking a 5th placed finishing position. Our fastest lap time was 1:00.79.

Photo by John Lockett

A "splash and dash" pit stop saw us straight out into Supertwins Race 1. If you are only going to watch one onboard video from this report, then this is probably the one to watch! A couple of wheelie-popping BMWs meant that we were able to enter the chicane in 6th position, but we were demoted to 7th position at the hairpin (by Dave Grace) on the opening lap and then Stephen Taylor came passed at Paddock corner - but ran wide so we were able to recover the position. From there, we overtook Aron Redmond on lap 3 to take 6th position - but Stephen Taylor continued to hound us and attempted an overtake on lap 4. On the final lap, into the final corner, Stephen came passed once again but we managed to turn inside him and get on the gas early which allowed us to drag him to the line by just 0.03 of a second! We finished in 6th position with a best lap time of 1:00.36.

Photo by Graham Mallen

Out on the Kawasaki again in Open 600 Race 1, a good start saw us finish the opening lap in 12th position. In our 12th position we closely follow a couple of riders but never progress through the pack. Our lap time of 1:00.35 demonstrated that we had more speed left in us, but we just couldn't take advantage of it.

Photo by Graham Mallen

It was again time for the main "Stars" race and once again Charlie Nesbitt took a commanding victory to secure the overall victory for another year! A truly outstanding performance!!

We headed out for Darley Cup Race 2 and ended the opening lap in 7th position with a large gap to the next rider. We managed to close the gap and on lap 5 we overtook Aron Redmond to move into 6th position, then managed to catch and pass Dave Glossop on the final lap to cross the line in 5th position. Our best lap time was 1:00.81.

Photo by Glyn Ivings

​In Supertwins Race 2 we entered the chicane in 7th position, behind a group of riders, but just couldn't quite hold onto them. When pushing to stay with them we would make small mistakes and they slowly went further and further into the distance. After a lonely race we finished in 7th position, setting a best lap of 1:00.75 along the way - which had been very consistent all weekend!

Our final race of the weekend (and the season) was Open 600 Race 2. The race was initially started but was red-flagged when Adam Mather fell at the hairpin and Tim Walsh unfortunately had nowhere to go. Both riders were uninjured in the crashes.

The race was quickly restarted and we settled into 9th position. We were following Liam Wood for the opening half of the race, trying to make our way passed, when he then started going quicker and quicker! We managed to set a best lap time of 59.56 but ultimately had to settle for 9th position at the chequered flag.

​So that ends our 2025 season! The feeling of not actively competing for a championship (as mentioned at the start of the season) has been unusual after all of our years of competitive racing. Fortuitously, this season saw an influx of fast riders into our usual championship classes - so we might not have been in contention anyway, even if we had intended to!

No trophies from this meeting - but Kate is still happy :-)

I think we have finally settled into a new mindset where we can set our own personal targets and then try to meet them, irrespective of what everyone else in the paddock is doing.

So what does this mean for the future? It means that in 2026 you will probably see us in the paddock occasionally. When competing, we will continue to ride the same machinery (and hope that it holds together!) and we will continue to set our own targets. We will also keep our eyes open for interesting opportunities and interesting race classes, just in case they take our fancy...

Thanks for staying with us. We'll see you soon!
​