​Here are some photos from the final Darley Moor meetings of 2020, taken by official Darley photographer Tony Else...

This weekend officially marked the end of our 2020 racing season, seemingly so soon after it had just started. Due to the shortened British Superbike championship series that is still in progress, the organisers had little choice but to cancel the ever-popular "Stars" races - but hopefully they will return once again in 2021!

To take care of a bit of house keeping, we brought back our 2019 championship trophy, along with 12 scrubbed race tyres for Stuart Hall. Once we had setup - and had 3 visits to scrutineering then a visit to the office to signon - we were very pleased to see bumper grids for the weekend: with 17 Twins machines, 26 Formula 600 machines and 30 Allcomers listed in the race programme.

SATURDAY RACE DAY
It rained all through Friday night and Saturday morning, so we swapped over to wets in the morning, as the forecast was for showers all day.

When we went onto the circuit for the Twins qualifying session, the track surface was so cold and wet that the rear wheel was spinning in a straight line as soon as we joined the track (see video below). Returning '2018 Mini Sound of Thunder champion' Elliot Williams crashed at Wilsons Chicane on his first flying lap. We got some heat in the tyres and put in a lap time of 1'16.49 which put us 5th in class (10th on the combined starting grid). Jack Petrie took pole position with a 1'13.05 lap.

The Formula 600 qualifying was next. Knowing the surface was still tricky we took a few laps to warm up the tyres. We qualified in 9th place with a 1'11.10 lap.

As the conditions meant that we were not pushing anywhere near as hard as in the dry, both bikes were feeling very firm at the front. We made some blanket adjustments, taking 3 turns of preload from each front fork leg and reduced the damping adjusters by two clicks each.

It was now time for the races... First up was the Allcomers Race where we picked a 2nd place grid spot from the hat! We started the 10-lap race and spent the first two laps making sure the tyres were correctly up to temperature. As expected, we were passed by several riders during these laps - but once we were comfortable with the bike settings we started to retake some positions, as well as seeing some riders retiring from the race. We began to lap riders on lap 8, so by the time we crossed the line at the end of the 10 laps we didn't know exactly where we had finished! After the race results had been published, we learned that we had been classified as 2nd place finishers in the race - 10.02 seconds behind race winner Joe Connolly.

After a bit of a break, it was time for Formula 600 Race 1. The race was started but soon red flagged due to mud on the circuit. The race was restarted over a shortened distance of just 4 laps. Once restarted, we got into the groove a little quicker this time, but in the short race we finished in 8th place.

Formula 600 Race 2 was up next. It was still cold but the track was now almost dry. There was a mix of tyres in the assembly area, but we were still on a full wet setup. There was a number of delays before the start and some cement dust was down due to an oil leak by a Kart in the previous race.

We got a fabulous start from our 8th position grid spot to enter Wilsons chicane in 3rd place. On lap 2, Ricky Tarren had a small slide at Wilsons chicane, so we nipped passed into 2nd position. We didn't hold that position long as Ricky got us back along the Pope straight. Then on lap 4, Formula 600 Race 1 winner Harry Jackson also came passed, demoting us to 4th place. For the remaining 4 laps we rode as hard as we could on the overheating wet tyres and managed to cross the line in 4th place, which we were very happy with given our day so far. We also won a trophy!

With the Saturday races concluded, we stripped the bikes for cleaning/prep for the Sunday races. We also made the switch to dry tyres, as the weather forecast for Sunday was dry all day. The only thing left was air all of our wet clothing, so we didn't have to put on damp gear in the morning!


SUNDAY RACE DAY
The good weather arrived as predicted on Sunday, but it was quite chilly with the temperature only reaching a peak of 12 degrees.

Our first qualifying session was for the Twins class. The conditions were fine but not wanting to do anything silly, we put in a few laps and banked a 1'05.49 lap which was quick enough for 2nd in class, behind Jack Petrie who logged a 1'05.10. This put us 6th on the combined grid.

Soon after, we were out again in the Formula 600 qualifying session. With the bumper 600 grids (both Formula and PreInjection machines), it was hard to get some clear track time. We managed a single clear lap and put in a 1'00.87 which put us 5th on the grid. Ricky Tarren got the pole with a 59.05 lap.

​The first race was the Allcomers race, where our luck continued and we picked 7th place grid spot out of the hat - but as no-one picked the grid spot directly ahead of us, we had a clear run to the first chicane. A good start meant that we were 2nd into the Wilsons chicane, then we took the lead going into Park on the opening lap. After 10 action-packed laps, we won the race by 36.17 seconds.

In Formula 600 Race 1 we got a poor start due to releasing the clutch too much and bogging. At the end of the opening lap we were in 8th position. On lap 3 we made a couple of passes and moved up to 6th place and were slowly catching up to Shaun Evans in 5th place, but ran out of laps. But we were one of only 5 racers to lap in under a minute, so that bode well for a potentially better result in the afternoon race.

​We had an OK start in Formula 600 Race 2, but dropped to 8th place by the end of the opening lap. We worked hard to get up to 5th place by the end of lap 5 (of 8). Then on the final lap when approaching two backmarkers there was a yellow flag shown at Park corner - so we slowed down and didn't pass them until we were passed the green flag, which cost us around 4 seconds. Knowing that our rivals would now have closed any gap we had, we tried hard to put in a perfect last half lap and crossed the line in 5th place.

Even though it has been a short year, we have still found it enjoyable so will be carrying on next season - 2021 Calendar TBC! Earlier this year we announced that we had achieved 100 race wins, but we have now managed to increase this figure to 108 race wins.

It wasn't all smooth sailing though, as after the race meeting our trusty van broke down on M6 with a (as yet unspecified) fuelling issue. Fortunately, we managed to coax it back to Two Daves Racing HQ at a leisurely 40mph...

And finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of my supporters (if you're reading this - then that's you!), Dave Carson Snr, Steph Carson, Lorna Carson & I would particularly like to thank Pomerol Partners, Rock Oil and Holroyd Tyrewarmers for their support.