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

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.

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".

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.

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!

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.

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...

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...

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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.

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.

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.

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.

​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!

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!
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With an upcoming family holiday to see a famous mouse in Florida during the school summer holiday break, we have made the decision to not attend the next Darley Moor meeting - as we don't want to risk picking up any injuries before our two weeks in the American sunshine.

This was not an easy decision, as we have only missed two Darley Moor meetings since March 2009 (one due to an injury and one due to a date clash) but the risk of impacting this "once in a lifetime family holiday" was just too high for us to take.

The next race weekend that we have scheduled is Darley Moor Rounds 9/10/11/12 in October. As that is so far away, we might see if we can add in an additional meeting before the "Stars at Darley" season closer takes place.

If we have any news we will share it as soon as its available, but for now we'll leave with... "If you can dream it, you can do it." (Walt Disney)
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Here are some official photos from the 2025 Aberdare Park Road Races...

Aberdare Park is a beautiful and picturesque tree-lined circuit nestled inside a Welsh park. There's a duck pond and kids playground on the inside of the circuit and various immaculately-pruned rose gardens around the outside. Hundreds of trees are protected by a total of 1800 hay bales. According to the setup staff, this is a reduction from the previous 2500 hay bales that used to be used, due to the use of recticel barriers at certain locations nowadays.

We have actually visited the circuit once before - back in 1998 when we rode a 250GP bike. Reading our old race report it sounds like we managed to do a lap in the 44-second bracket back then, so our aim was to match that or maybe even to get into the 43s... It is also the first televised event that we've been to in a while, as King of the Roads streamed the event live and the races should also appear on ITV4 at some point in the future.

A heatwave was the last thing that we expected to encounter in Wales, but the forecast 30C+ weather conditions were going to be tough to get through - just like the freshly-laid pile of sand that we got stuck in just after entering the paddock...

After disconnecting the caravan and managing to escape the sandpit, we found a spot in the paddock and setup for the weekend. Unfortunately our trusty generator picked this weekend to destroy itself, so we had to make a quick (90-minute round trip) trip to Swansea to pick up brand new invertor generator from Machine Mart.

​By the time we had returned to the circuit, the newcomers track walk (led by Ryan Dixon) had begun. We managed to catch up and join half-way through, and whilst Dave Jnr was walking the circuit, scrutineering was performed at our awning - which was very convenient!

Saturday Race Day
We started the weekend with the Newcomers session on the Kawasaki ZX6R, where we managed to get acquainted with the track and got down to a 50.54 lap time. The bright sunshine combined with the shadows from the trees meant that identifying the circuit boundaries could sometimes be tricky. We seemed to be fine with the visible/open corners (where you can see where you're going) but were taking longer to build speed through the blind corners.

​A series of bumps on the Swallow (start/finish) straight set the bike into a tankslapper a couple of times, so after the session we added four clicks to the steering damper which sorted the issue.

Shortly afterwards we headed out for the Welsh Open free practice session on the Kawasaki, where we chipped off a bit more time and got down to a 47.57.

Our third session was again on the Kawasaki, for the Park Challenge (Supersport) 600 qualifying session. Due to the short length of the circuit, sessions were split in two - with race numbers 1-79 on track together and race numbers 80+ out together. We put in another 13 laps (making a total of 31 laps so far) and reduced our lap time down to 44.424 which qualified us 9th on the grid for the (race numbers 80+) heat race.

We then finally got a chance to ride the Aprilia in the Supertwins (race numbers 80+) qualifying session. Despite adding some extra steering damping prior to riding the bike it was clear that more was required. Our qualifying time of 45.124 put us 8th on the grid for the heat race. Back in the paddock we wound in a bit more steering damper and took out some preload from the front forks.

Our final qualifying session was for the Welsh Open class. After managing to post a 44.987 lap we pulled in - 44 laps of this tight and twisty circuit in 32C heat had exhausted us! We had qualified 11th on the grid.

After a short break, and some time trying our best to cool down, we headed out for the Park Challenge (Supersport) 600 heat race. From the exit of the first corner to the chequered flag we had a fairly lonely race, with the guys ahead leaving us behind whilst we created a gap behind us. We finished the race in 7th position having set a best lap of 44.456.

Next up was the Supertwins heat race which was very similar, as after the start no overtaking took place. This time, however, we managed to finished in 6th place and were only 1.75 seconds behind the 4th-placed finisher. Our best lap was a 45.278.

Entry into the "final" races was determined based upon lap times and we had just managed to scrape into the Park Challenge (Supersport) 600 final race, which we were proud of. Due to some delays during the day the final races were reduced to 6 laps - this actually worked in our favour as it meant that we could race without worrying about our physical condition (our shoulders were still very achy). Being at the back of the grid meant that everyone in front was quicker than us - and in the race (no surprise) we were soon in last place, but managed to push hard to lap near our PB time by setting a 44.949 lap.

The final race of the day was the Supertwins final race, where we started 13th on the grid. After another race than contained zero overtakes, we crossed the line in 13th place. The good news was that we had broken into the 44s on the Aprilia by setting a 44.916 lap time.

Racing for the day had to end at 6pm , so our final race was pushed to Sunday morning. After a few maintenance tasks - and a good freshen up - we had some dinner, watched the German MotoGP Sprint race, then headed into Aberdare town to sample a couple of the local pubs.


Sunday Race Day
We slept well and woke to a slightly cooler (but still hot at 28C) day.

There was a planned halt to proceedings for the church break at 10:30am, but the organisers planned a busy schedule from 9:00am which included a couple of races for us.

​​The first race was Welsh Open Consolation race which was carried across from Saturday. As I hadn't gone out in the Welsh Open heat race I had not set a lap time - which meant that I would start from the very back of the grid...

When the race began we really struggled to pass other riders. On the final lap we managed to make an overtake and then caught another to be just 0.1 of a second behind at the flag. We finished in 9th position with a fastest lap of 46.162. The race may have made for a decent onboard video, but really we just wanted to have a better finishing position.

Next up was the Supertwins Heat Race where we started from 8th on the grid. We got a good start and had a hell of a race, being involved in a 4-rider battle for 4th position. Starting at the back of the battle in 7th place we squeezed our way through to 6th position, then a couple of laps later made a relatively easy pass on the straight before chasing down 4th place. On the final corner we attempted a (unsuccessful) move around the outside and crossed the line just 0.1 of a second behind the 4th position finisher in 5th place. During the race we managed to break the 43-barrier and set a new Personal Best lap time of 43.821.

During the church break we had a visit from Peraison's Tim Watson (and his "Best Man") who had been spectating all weekend, which must have been almost as exhausting as the riding was!

For the 10-lap Park Challenge (Supersport) 600 heat race we started from 9th on grid. For whatever reason, there were a few missing riders in the rows ahead, which worked to our adveantage. After exiting the first corner in 5th position we had a lonely race and finished in 5th position, setting another new Personal Best lap along the way. We were now down to 43.452.

The 12-lap Supertwins Final would be our last race of the weekend. A good start saw us exit the first corner in 6th position where we managed to stay for the entire race and completed all 12 laps to cross the chequered flag in a fine 6th position - setting another new Personal Best lap of 42.942 along the way.

Coming back into the paddock we were ecstatic! During the weekend we had qualified for the "Final" races in every class that we entered. We got into the 42s and we avoided being lapped in any of the races! That combination felt like quite an achievement so we decided to leave on a high  :-)

We were packed up by 3pm and arrived back at Two Daves Racing HQ by 7pm. After catching up on some of the MotoGP and WorldSBK coverage we headed to bed at the end of what had been a truly fantastic weekend! We would like to give our wholehearted thanks to Ian McLeod for inviting us to the event and, since you got this far, would like to thank you very much for taking the time to read about our adventures!

We'll see you soon!
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Here are some photos from the June rounds of the 2025 Darley Moor championships, taken by official Darley photographer Tony Else...