​Here are some photos from Round 3 of the Darley Moor championships, taken by official Darley photographer Tony Else...

Here are some photos from the second Oulton Park round of the 2024 Wirral 100 championships, taken by the talented Malc Brunt...

We arrived at Darley Moor Round 3 straight from the Wirral 100 meeting at Oulton Park which meant a late setup in the paddock. After a quick snack we settled in for the night and had a lengthy sleep!

Upon waking we needed to get the scrutineering and sing-on activities out of the way. We still felt achy and exhausted from the Oulton Park meeting despite a good night's sleep - but had no choice but to soldier on during the beautifully sunny summer day...

During the journey to the circuit we had googled possible reasons for the Aprilia engine management light that had shown during the Oulton Park meeting. The display of the engine light indicated a minor issue somewhere, which was somewhat reassuring. A loose battery connection was cited by several websites as a possible cause, so on the Sunday morning we checked the connections and then decided to disconnect the battery and reinstall. Afterwards, the engine light icon disappeared - and never reappeared!

Our first on-track session was Open 600 Qualifying. There was a lot of traffic to content with but we found a clear lap and posted a 1:01.27 lap time which put us 4th in the qualifying standings.

Shortly after we headed out for the combined Darley Cup & 700cc Twins Qualifying. We made a few mistakes during the session by using the 600 gear pattern - whereby we came out of the hairpin in 1st gear and when we snapped opened the throttle the front wheel went skyward! After calming down we managed a 1:01.49 which set Pole Position for both classes.

Our first race was Darley Cup Race 1. After an OK start we settled into 3rd place. On lap 2 Jim Hodson appeared to miss a gear coming out of the hairpin which allowed us to take the position and move behind race-leader Nick Clare. At Park corner we attempted an ultimately-unsuccessful move around the outside, followed by an unsuccessful attempt at Townleys. But at Park corner on lap 4 we managed to successfully make the move and then retained the lead until the flag to take the win! Along the way we set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:00.36.

For Open 600 Race 1, championship leader Mark Goodings was made to start from the back of the grid following a policy/rule infringement. This elevated us to the front row of the grid in 3rd position. An OK start saw us fall to 5th place by the end of the opening lap and then be relegated to 6th position by the end of lap 2 when Mark Goodings came passed. A large group had formed from 2nd-6th positions and on lap 4 Chris Stuart tried to highside out of Park corner which allowed us to move up to 5th position in the group. We tried to make further progress but couldn't and eventually crossed the line in 5th position, having set a best lap time of 59.48 along the way.

A word of warning regarding the 600 onboard videos - they are very shakey at times which isn't great. We'll try to resolve for the next meeting!

The final race before the lunch break was 700cc Twins Race 1. The grid numbers were low again at this meeting but the appearance of Jim Hodson provided a challenge - even though he was racing in the 650cc Twins class. Jim got the jump on us and with his bike being a very similar speed along the straights he kept us behind until lap 4. Once in the overall race lead we set some solid laps to stretch an advantage and won the race and set the fastest lap of 1:00.79 along the way.

Darley Cup Race 2 was similar to the opening Twins race, with us following Jim Hodson for a few laps again before taking the lead. At the end of the 10-lap race we took the win by 12.86 seconds from Nick Clare, with Jim coming home in third place. We set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:00.95.

In Open 600 Race 2 a good start saw us enter the Wilsons chicane in 2nd position, just behind Adam Mather. We tailed Adam for the first half of the race, looking for a way through, and eventually managed to move into the lead on lap 5 and then just tried to put in consistent laps. On lap 8 we approached Mike Hanrahan and narrowly managed to sneak passed him into the back esses (apologies if it was a bit close Mikey! See around 08:30 in the onboard video).

At the end of the 10-lap race we had WON THE RACE! For us nowadays, overall 600 race wins are quite scarce and are highly valued by us, so by the time we returned to the paddock we were quite emotional and extremely happy that we had managed to secure this result.

The final race of the weekend was 700cc Twins Race 2. The race was very quiet with a number of starters missing from the grid. After passing the quick-starting Anthony Thane on the opening lap we barely saw anyone else during the 10-lap race, circulating in consistent 1:02s laps, to secure the fifth win of the day for us!

The end of this meeting marks the halfway point in the Darley Moor championships. The tables currently look as follows.

700cc Twins Championship (Top 5)
David Carson     84
Josh Froggatt       30
Sean Seddon        24
Aron Redmond     20
Fraser Heginson   12

Darley Cup Championship (Top 5)
David Carson     82
Nick Clare            70
Mark Pattinson     30
Aron Redmond     20
Jim Hodson          20

Open 600 Championship (Top 5)
Mark Goodings     77
David Carson     63
Joe Holdsworth    54
Adam Mather       41
Chris Stuart         33

Our next time out on track will be back at Darley Moor on Sunday 8th September for Round 4 of their championships.
​

This weekend marked the final time during the 2024 season that we would compete at two different circuits on two consecutive days. We had the Wirral 100 meeting at Oulton Park on the Saturday followed by Darley Moor Round 3 on the Sunday.

We left Two Daves Racing HQ straight after work on Friday evening and arrived at Oulton Park slightly earlier than the quoted arrival time, which meant that we were asked to queue with the other early arrivals on the internal rally course. As we had time to kill we decided to take the van and caravan for a lap around the tarmac section - no lap records (or plates/mugs/etc) were harmed during our first run around the section!  :-)

We setup in "our usual spot" before doing scrutineering and sign-on and then had a relaxed evening prior to our early start on Saturday.

Noise testing began at 7.45am and bikes were on track for 8.45am. We had a warm-up session on each bike prior to the qualifying session. Some light rain drizzle made things interesting but it quickly dried up. We used the warm-up sessions to bed in tyres/pads and to refresh our memory of this wonderful circuit layout. Unfortunately - just like the Oulton meeting earlier this season - the final instructions forbid cameras being carried so we don't have any video coverage from this event...

Our first qualifying session was for the Supersport 600 class. During the session some light (mental) rain made an appearance, but our lap time of 1:51.695 put us 2nd in the Pre-2011 class and 13th on the overall grid.

In the 820cc Twins qualifying session our 1:51.873 lap time put us 6th in class (10th on the combined grid). We were circulating nicely in this session until we almost crashed at Hislops Chicane on our final lap - when we ran over some spilled fluids and subsequently lost the rear end! After being ejected from the seat we fortunately landed back on the seat, so merrily made our way to the chequered flag...

​Onto the races and our first race was Supersport 600 Race 1. The race started as dry but there was light rain during race. We ended up chasing Tom Harrison for the Pre-2011 class lead, eventually finishing 2nd in class (8th overall) with a fastest lap of 1:49.660. When the rain fell we were actually the quickest on track, with the overall race leaders in the 1'58s whilst we were in the 1'54s - so we got a special mention on the commentary!

​Out into 820cc Twins Race 1 and we set a new Personal Best lap time of 1:49.805 on our way to 7th in class (10th overall). During the race start we got boxed to the outside of the track and were at the back of a pack of twin-machines. Coming into Shell Oils hairpin we lost some time when a Kawasaki ER6 broke down in front of us and couldn't decide where to go. We tried to close the gap to the pack but kept making mistakes, which made the gap even bigger! When we finally stopped trying to push then we managed to put in our new PB lap.

After the lunch break we started Supersport 600 Race 2. The race assembly caught out some of the front-runners as the entire front row was absent from the start - they were late to the assembly area and had to start from the back of the grid, but they soon made their way back through the pack. As the race developed there was a big battle between 8th-14th places on track which we were a part of. We kept looking for ways to move through the pack but never made a pass. We put in a best lap of 1:49.773 and finished 14th overall, which was 3rd in the Pre-2011 class. Tom Harrison took the Pre-2011 class win to extend his championship lead.

Our final race, 820cc Twins Race 2, was the penultimate race of the day and started close to 6pm. As we moved onto the starting grid the engine management light lit up on the dash. Being an Aprilia we tried a key-off/key-on to reset the electronics but the light persisted. We set off on the warm-up lap and the bike was running fine so we decided to start the race. We got a great start and moved into 6th position overall (3rd in class) at the first corner. Then on the opening lap Mike Bampton's Calon Racing Aprilia suffered a catastrophic engine failure which elevated us to 2nd position in class. After a few laps some additional warning lights regarding the ABS/TC appeared on the dash. We tried our best to ignore them and managed to finish the race in 2nd place in class (5th overall) and set a best lap of 1:51.097 - which indicated to us that there wasn't much wrong mechanically with the bike.

At the end of a long and tiring day, the championship point standings now look as follows.

Pre-2011 Supersport 600 Championship Standings (Top 5)
Tom Harrison      116
David Carson    103
Caleb Williams     79
Matthew Perry     59
Rhys Forrest        42

820cc Twins Championship Standings (Top 5)
Louis Dawson      125
Scott McCrory      103
David Carson     83
Andy Herd           44
Robert Williams    43

There is one more weekend of racing (two race days) left in the Wirral 100 championship. The final round will take place in October at the Anglesey circuit.

But for now we had a more pressing matter to deal with - another race meeting to attend! So we packed up and headed straight to Darley Moor for Round 3 of their championships - you can read that race report here!

With the unfortunate cancellation of the final round of the 2024 Aintree championships - due to a sinkhole appearing on the circuit caused by a collapsed drain - we have now officially been crowned as the 2024 Aintree 750cc Twins champion!

We were looking forward to riding around the challenging Aintree circuit one last time this year, but unfortunately it wasn't to be.

The final championship standings look as below - with us also securing 6th in the Supersport 600 class. With no further on-track action occurring this year we will also hold onto the 700cc Supertwin lap record for a while longer.

700cc Supertwins Final Championship Standings (Top 5)
David Carson       150
Stephen Johnston   90
John Miller             77
Andrew Herd          40
Tim Walsh              40

750cc Twins Final Championship Standings (Top 5)
David Carson       135
Stephen Johnston   93
Michael Bampton    75
John Miller             52
Tim Walsh              40

Supersport 600 Final Championship Standings (Top 10)
Christopher Jones   136
Max Ainscouch        96
Stephen Gorton       90
Matt Bell                 67
Duncan Burns         59
David Carson        58
James Leathan        42
Joseph Busfield       40
Caleb Williamson     31
Mark Pattinson        23

Fortunately there is not long to wait until we get back on track, as we will be attending the Wirral 100 Oulton Park meeting next Saturday (10th August) immediately followed by Darley Moor Round 3 on the Sunday (11th August).