Here are some photos from the final round of the NG Road Racing championships, taken by official photographer Colin Hill...

We hadn't visited the Anglesey circuit since 2014 due to a restriction put in place by "Mrs Carson", as the previous two visits to the track resulted in visits to Bangor hospital with broken bones! We arrived on the Thursday evening to setup and whilst setting up Dave Snr picked up a knee injury - so it was off to Bangor hospital we went... Fortunately that was our last hospital visit in this particular trip  :-)

For this meeting we decided to combine awnings and setup as a group, along with fellow racers Daniel Nurrish and Richard Wardle. Dave Snr had treated himself for the weekend and was sleeping in a rented motorhome from Conwy Motorhome Hire.

Friday Test Day
Unexpectedly, it rained overnight. When we awoke it was wet but drying quickly, so we decided to give the opening session a miss, as there was no daytime rain planned for the weekend.

In session 2 we went out on the Aprilia RS660 and were surprised by how tight and twisty the circuit was - as our memory of the track was that it was open and flowing. For session 3 we decided to follow and video Daniel Nurrish to see whether the footage could help Daniel to improve.

After the lunch break we then went out on Kawasaki ZX6R, which seemed a lot more hectic but the lap time was not much quicker. By the end of the test day we had got down to a 1:15.2 lap time, which we were happy with.

​After quick bit of "admin" (scrutineering and signing on), a bite to eat, and prep of the bikes for Saturday - we then went for track walk. It was surprising to see the camber that certain sections had - which wasn't easily visible when riding - as well as feeling the available grip underfoot. Anglesey is known as a grippy circuit and it's now apparent that it loves to destroy knee sliders!

Saturday Race Day
We had a practice session on each bike, then headed into qualifying. As expected, we were getting quicker every time we went out. In the Open 600 session, we qualified 7th in class (8th on combined grid) with a 1:13.864 lap. Shortly afterwards we headed out in the Supertwin session and set a lap time of 1:14.718 which was quickest in the session until Mark Hughes put in a 1:14.700 (just 0.018 of a second quicker!) on his final lap. We would start from 5th place on the combined grid (2nd in class).

Our first race was Open 600 Race 1. As expected, when the lights went out the pace was hot from the start. We spent the first part of the race behind Bevan Plumley, until we made a move on lap 5 and put in a series of solid laps to finish in 7th place. We set a new Personal Best Lap of 1:13.696 on the final lap.

Our only other race on Saturday was Supertwins Race 1. After an initial strong start the race was red flagged due to a crash and oil spillage at Peel corner. The race was re-run over 6 laps. We got a decent start and managed to move past Mark Hughes into The Banking on the opening lap. From there we set our sights on racers in the other classes - making a move on PI600-racer Thomas Pickford, then later a move on Honda-SP1-mounted Nick Williamson. Brian Greenfield had cleared off up front but the four of us were having a battle for 2nd-overall on track. At the end of the shortened race, we managed to finish 2nd on track and won the Supertwin class by 0.971 of a second from Mark Hughes. Steve Moody came home in third place. Once again we set our fast lap on the final lap - with a new Supertwin Personal Best lap of 1:13.886.

Sunday Race Day
We decided to head out on the Aprilia RS660 for the morning warmup - which had mixed classes in and we thought was quite busy. It was only when we saw the results sheet and learned that we were the fastest rider by over 2 seconds that we realised why! We then went to watch Richard Wardle and Daniel Nurrish who were in the following warmup session, but both riders decided to pull in early, so we didn't get to see much. It turned out that Richard lost a brake pad pin (along with a couple of pads), so was lucky to survive unscathed. As we had the same thing happen to us at Cadwell Park, we had some spare so lent one to Richard so that he could continue his day.

The first race of the day was Open 600 Race 2. After a good start to the race put us in a decent position, we pushed on hard but had a couple of minor slides in the opening laps and the bike was feeling loose. We thought we were lapping slowly but a quick glance at the onboard laptimer mid-race showed that we were going faster than ever before! We weren't in a position to comfortably push any harder, so decided to attempt to maintain our pace until the flag. This worked well and no-one caught us. Coming into the last corner on the last lap we saw that Richard Wardle had crashed, which elevated us to 5th position in class at the chequered flag. During the race we set a new Personal Best Lap of 1:13.357.

Soon afterwards was Supertwins Race 2. This was a fun race, with us racing with other classes and crossing the line in 2nd place overall. We won the Supertwin race by 19.180 seconds from Steve Moody, with Edward Giles taking the final podium spot. Our best lap of 1:14.144 was slightly slower than in the Saturday race.

We were now into the lunchbreak and Richard was attempting to repair his machine in time for the final Open 600 race of the season. It turned out that he and Scott Keys were both in a position to secure 2nd position in the championship, so this would be an important race for him. Richard's spares kit was missing a few parts so we lent him a rearset assembly to use with his shift rod and quickshifter. A few bolts needed to be purchased from the paddock spares man - but the bike was working again, albeit the gearshift rod looked very close to the rearset bracket. Richard took a slow tour around the paddock to ensure that all gears could be selected - and it all looked good! And after Daniel Nurrish made a modification to the paddock stand mechanism, tyre warmers could be then be fit to Richard's machine.

Richard then sat in the corner and tried to work out every possible permutation to see where he would need to finish - made more difficult by the fact that he would have to start the race from the back of the grid...

Out into 10-lap Open 600 Race 3 and we got a fantastic start and moved into 5th position. As we were in such a great position we pushed as hard as we could but were over-riding and before long our hands started to ache as we were holding on for dear life... We knew that sooner or later Richard would be coming by, so kept our eyes peeled for an angry fast bloke on a red bike! Sure enough it only took until lap 3 for Richard to appear and just as he came past Scott Keys unfortunately crashed at the fast Church corner (note: we spoke to Scott later and he was unhurt thankfully).

On lap 3 Mark Walker also came past us, relegating us to 6th position. We took a quick look behind to see if there was a queue of other racers behind but there was some clear space - which allowed us to relax just a little - and we were able to recompose ourselves and put in some quick laps once again. By mid-race Ricard was suffering from some issues with downshifts, so backed off the pace, which allowed us to retake 5th position in the race - which we kept to the flag! We were happy with our fastest lap of 1:13.858 during the race. On return to the paddock, our awning filled with smoke when Richard did a burnout to celebrate securing the "vice-champion" position.

We had just one race left for the weekend - Supertwins Race 3. We had managed to avoid incident all weekend, so decided to play it safe for the final race and try to avoid trouble. The race started and we went too slow, becoming involved in battles with riders we hadn't raced with all weekend, so decided to pick up pace and to get into some clear space.

The sun was shining and the views out to sea were magnificent - but the Traction Control was intervening at both Peel corner and Church corner, which slowed us down (both mentally and physically). At the end of 10 laps, we won the race by 14.325 seconds. Steve Moody finished in second and Edward Giles took the final podium spot. Our fastest lap was 1:14.029.

It was a great weekend for all of the riders in our awning, as Daniel Nurrish made massive leaps forward with his lap times and also obtained his first points-scoring (and Top 10) finishes of the NG season! We also received an award from Colin Hill for the "Rider of the Round" at Castle Combe, which was lovely to receive.

With the NG Road Racing season coming to a close, the final standings look as follows. We are super happy that we managed to secure a Top 10 finish in the Open 600 championship standings - finishing the year in 7th place:

NG "SMW Ltd Supertwin" Final Championship Standings (Top 5)
1st - David Carson     378
2nd - Edward Giles       245
3rd - Steve Moody        217
4th - William Holland     90
5th - Paul Williams        75

NG "IMS Open 600" Final Championship Standings (Top 8)
1st - George Edwards    381
2nd - Richard Wardle     217
3rd - Scott Key             196
4th - Shane Faber         150
5th - James Bull            148
6th - Lewis Jones          115
7th - David Carson     110
8th - Ross Walker           98

Our next race event will be the last of our season - the prestigious "Stars at Darley" event, incorporating Rounds 7 & 8 of the club championships. As a reminder, the Darley Moor championship standings look as follows - with a maximum of 30 points in each championship still available:

Darley Moor "700cc Twins" Championship Standings (Top 5)
1st - David Carson    75
2nd - Ian Robinson      34
2nd - Patrick Lord        34
4th - Ben Wilkinson      28
5th - Chris Barton        22
5th - Eddy Wormald     22

Darley Moor "Formula 600" Championship Standings (Top 5)
1st - Ben Dale              73
2nd - David Carson    43
3rd - Richard Cooper     30
4th - Stephen Parsons   27
5th - Albert Walker        22

Here are some photos from the Round 6 of the Darley Moor championships, taken by official Darley photographer Tony Else...

After a 2-month summer break, the Darley Moor season resumed with Round 6 of the club championships. Prior to the meeting we fit a new set of Continental Race Attack 2 tyres to the Aprilia RS660 Trofeo for the first time, having liked them on the Kawasaki Supersport machine.

The week of rain leading up to the event had subsided, so when we arrived to setup on the Saturday evening it was lovely and dry.

The Sunday morning brought heavy fog, which delayed the start of the event by 45 minutes. We were in the first two qualifying sessions out on track and we felt like we took it fairly steady - when the timesheets appeared, it looked like everyone had taken the same approach as we had qualified in pole position for both the Twins and Formula 600 classes.

After the practice sessions there was a 2-minute silence, followed by the national anthem, in remembrance of the Queen.

We were then onto the races! The first of which was Allcomers Race 1, where our chosen peg gave us 12th position on the starting grid. We got a good start and managed to take the lead on the opening lap.

Knowing that there was some "meat on the bones" of the race record - which we had set at the previous round - we decided to see whether we could better it. We put in 6 (out of the 10) laps in the 1:00-bracket, with a best of 1:00.77, and won the race by 24.40 seconds - breaking the existing race record by a massive 7 seconds!

The next race was Twins Race 1, where we were 3rd into the Wilsons chicane, behind Jim Hodson and Anthony Thane. We used the superior power of the Aprilia to drive past Anthony's Suzuki and moved into 2nd before the back esses. We then tailed Jim Hodson for a couple of laps before taking the lead at Paddock corner at the end of lap 2, which we held until the chequered flag taking the win.

Our final race before the lunch break was Formula 600 Race 1. We got a decent start from pole position but were squeezed into the chicane and got pushed back to 4th place. As the race developed we were on the rear wheel of Liam Weston in 3rd place but couldn't find a way through, despite the majority of our laps being in the 58-second bracket. Stephen Parsons narrowly won the race by 0.21 of a second from Ben Dale, whilst we were a further 3 seconds back - finishing in 4th place.

After the lunch break it was time for the points races. First up was Twins Race 2, which gave us the opportunity to secure the championship. We couldn't hear the tannoy so decided to leave for the assembly area when Jim Hodson did. We left around 10 seconds after Jim but he managed to take the grid - but by the time we arrived the warm-up lap had just started, so we had to start from the back of the grid instead. Due to the diminished grid, that put us on the 8th place spot (directly behind the pole position spot we should have started from).

A decent start meant that we were 4th into the Wilsons chicane, and we managed to pass Anthony Thane and Patrick Lord on the brakes into Park corner on the opening lap, to move up to 2nd position. A good run through the rest of the opening lap put us in a position to make a successful move on Jim Hodson and we moved into the lead at Paddock corner. From there we tried to run a clean race - which seemed like it took forever - and took the win to take the championship. On the cooldown lap we stopped at Park corner to celebrate with the marshals!

Championship celebrations were on hold until we got our final race - Formula 600 Race 2 - out of the way. Starting from the front row we got an appalling start - but managed to recover a few positions into the chicane (where we entered in 8th), before moving into 7th position at Park corner, then up to 6th position by the end of the opening lap. There was a big gap to the battle for 3rd-5th places, so we got our head down and managed to bridge the gap by the end of lap 4 (of 10). There was a lot of battling within the group but we managed to move up to 5th place by the end of lap 6. Then on lap 7 on the run from Park corner to the back esses (see approx 6:30 in the video) the bike shut off...

We quickly whipped in the clutch, got as close to the track edge as we could and came to a stop. A look behind showed no ploom of smoke, and the ignition/dash was still on. We decided to key off the bike and then prod the starter (to see if any nasty noises were apparent). No untoward noises appeared so we prodded the starter button again and it sprung into life. A look behind showed a big gap so we cautiously rejoined the race to see whether the issue would reoccur. By the time we got back to the start/finish line we decided that it would be best to push on and see whether it happens again.

The issue did not reoccur and in the "second part" of our race we managed to set our fastest lap time of 58.57 (which set us as the third-fastest rider in the race). At the chequered flag we crossed the line in 8th position. Looking back at the video footage, we believe that the quickshifter may have temporarily got stuck in the 'kill' position - but I guess time will tell on that...

​Back into the paddock and the celebrations could take place! Looking back to this time last year we couldn't imagine achieving what we have done in the 2022 season, which is why we have enjoyed celebrating the success so much with the whole family  :-)

After 6 (of 8 rounds) of the Darley Moor championships, the standings look as follows:
​
Twins Championship Standings (Top 5)
1st - David Carson    75
2nd - Ian Robinson      34
3rd - Patrick Lord         34
4th - Ben Wilkinson      28
5th - Chris Barton        22

Formula 600 Championship Standings (Top 5)
1st - Ben Dale              73
2nd - David Carson   43
3rd - Richard Cooper     30
4th - Stephen Parsons   27
5th - Albert Walker        22

Our next race meeting will be NG Anglesey this coming weekend (16th-18th September), so there will likely be some late nights to make sure that everything is prepared and ready for another weekend of racing action!  :-)