Here are some photos from the final rounds of the Darley Moor championships, taken by official Darley photographer Tony Else...
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It was time for another of our season highlights - it was "Stars at Darley" weekend! We were honoured to be invited to be part of the 'main event' for the fifth time in our lengthy career and the weather forecast for the weekend looked fantastic! Taking part in the "Stars" races meant that we had 14 planned races (21 sessions on track including practice/qualifying) over the weekend, but it's nice to be "part of the show" so we didn't mind too much. On the Thursday before the meeting we attended the wedding celebrations of former Darley-regular Stuart Hall (congratulations to you and Zoe!) and decided to take a half-day off work on the Friday afternoon, which allowed us to setup in our usual spot in what became a very busy paddock. Saturday - Round 6 We were the first out on track, with the Formula 600 and Darley Cup qualifying session opening the weekend action. There was a lot of traffic and we struggled to get in a clear lap which resulted in a best lap time of 1'01.23 which put us 6th on each grid. After a short break we went out into the Stars Untimed session, which was red-flagged early after Chris Stuart took avoiding action into Townleys and unfortunately crashed. After the session restarted we managed to improve our time down to a 59.16 - which put us 8th fastest (of 21 riders) in this session full of superstars! Being this high up in the timesheets was unlikely to persist - but it was nice to shine brightly, even if just for a little while... :-) We then got to take the Aprilia for a spin in the Twins qualifying session. During the session we experienced unusual behaviour from the bike - it felt like it had blown up - but after coasting to a stop and finding the engine still running, we checked that the chain hadn't broken, then checked that we hadn't broken any gears before setting off again. You can see this moment in the video below. Once we were going again, we needed to validate that the bike was OK so pushed hard for a lap time and put in a 1'00.72 which was good enough for pole position. The bike ran fine during the remainder of the session, so it was deemed ready to race. Our final qualifying session was the big one - the Stars at Darley qualifying session. We headed out a registered a number of laps very close to each other, with the best being a 58.88. This qualified us 17th on the Stars grid. A couple of riders unfortunately did not manage to meet the 115% qualifying criteria so were not allowed to race, which reduced the starting grid to 19 riders. It was now time for the first of our races - Darley Cup Race 1. With all of the track action planned for the weekend, our approach was to try and conserve our energy for the Stars and afternoon Points races. A good start saw us enter the Wilsons chicane in 3rd place and we moved passed Adam Green into Park corner on the opening lap to take 2nd place behind Stars-rider Grant Thomson. Putting in laps as quick as 58.74 we kept 2nd-place until the chequered flag, finishing 2.97 behind the heat-race winner. After a quick swap of bikes we went out into Twins Race 1. A relatively poor start saw us enter the Wilsons chicane in 5th position on the combined grid (2nd in class) but we soon moved up to 4th place and were with the leading trio. Then on lap 2 we started to experience "Italian electronic issues" with the bikes Traction Control intermittently kicking in. After a few laps this turned into an alarm displayed on the dashboard (previously seen at Castle Combe) advising that the Traction Control was disabled. Despite the message, forward drive was still being impeded, but after fiddling around with the handlebar buttons we managed to fully deactivate it. With the time spent resolving the issue we were unable to challenge for the win - despite setting the fastest lap of 1'00.64 - and finished in 2nd place behind ManxGP podium finisher Dan Ingham. The last of our heat races was Formula 600 Race 1. An OK start saw us retain our starting position into the chicane, before moving passed Chris Stuart at the end of lap 2 to take 5th position. From here we caught up to the trio of Adam Green, Mark Goodings and Jack Worth - but after being unable to find a clean way through decided to settle for a 5th place grid spot for the Points race. It was time for the big event - Stars at Darley Race 1. The race began and was red-flagged after a couple of laps due to a crash between Daniel Stubbs and Josh Owens. Unfortunately both sustained injuries and went to hospital - we wish them all the best with their recoveries! There was a lengthy delay whilst the air ambulance arrived but eventually the organisers decided to re-run the race. From the second start (shown in the video below) there developed a battle for the final three finishing positions between 1000cc-mounted David Glossop, 600cc-mounted multiple-British-champion (and one of our competitors from back in the 1990s) Steve Brogan and ourselves. At the chequered flag just 0.79 of a second covered our trio, with us being classified in 14th place. Due to the lengthy delays the organisers decided that there was no option but to cancel the remainder of the day's races. Unusually, points and trophies were awarded based on the earlier heat races - which worked both for and against us - but it was one of few options available. After prepping the bikes for Sunday and charging the laptimes/cameras, we got cleaned up and headed to the onsite disco - before retiring to bed early for some much-needed rest. Sunday - Round 7 Once again we were first out on track with the Formula 600 and Darley Cup qualifying session. There was a lot of traffic again but we managed to get one clean-ish lap of 1'00.57 which qualified us 4th on the Darley Cup grid and 6th on the Formula 600 grid. We decided to use the Stars Free Practice session to get further up to speed and reduced our lap time to a 59.16, which was much more "in the ballpark". In the Twins qualifying we continued to push and set a 1:00.26 lap time that set pole position and gave us encouragement for the day ahead. New for 2023, the top-7 "Stars at Darley" competitors then took part in a Superpole session - where each rider gets the track to themselves and has just one lap to set their qualifying time. It was a great spectacle and hinted that pole-sitter (and Stars Race 1 winner) Charlie Nesbitt might just set a new outright lap record today... Darley Cup Race 1 was our first race of the day. A decent start saw us keep our starting position into the chicane, before a mistake by Stuart Bradbury gifted us 3rd position on the exit of Park corner on lap 2 and we passed Joe Holdworth on the brakes into Paddock corner at the end of lap 2. By this point race-leader Grant Thomson was over 5 seconds down the road, so with only 4 laps remaining he was uncatchable. We set our fastest lap of the weekend (58.67) and secured our 2nd place finish. After a very short break, we were back out again in Twins Race 1. After an appalling start, we overtook people on every lap until eventually taking the overall race lead on lap 4. Into some clear air, we then pressed on further - setting a 59.85 lap on the penultimate lap and then being even faster on the final lap. Our onboard laptimer showed that we were on for a possible new Personal Best lap time, but coming out of the final corner we had a rear wheel slide that the data shows cost us 0.18 of a second - across the line it turned out that we had equalled our Personal Best lap time to the hundredth of a second with a 59.77 lap... Still, we were happy to take the win! Onto Formula 600 Race 1 and another appalling start saw us drop to 9th position into the chicane on the opening lap. Knowing what had happened with championship points the previous day we didn't want to settle for a lowly finish, so tried our best to move forward. We made a couple of places on the opening lap, and were up to 5th position by the start of the final lap. On the approach to Paddock corner on the final lap we saw our opportunity and moved up to 3rd place on the brakes, made all the more interesting by the appearance of a backmarker at that crucial moment. A clean run to the line saw us finish in 3rd place - with the 5-rider 3rd-7th group split at the line by just 0.67 of a second! It was time for the main event once again - with Stars at Darley Race 2. This was an entertaining race between ourselves and Will Burchell on his 1000cc BMW machine - where there was plenty of overtaking action! We finished the race in 12th position and were classified in 13th position on the aggregated race results. At the front of the field Charlie Nesbitt was the clear victor with an average race speed in excess of 100mph. As the cherry on top of his victory, he also managed to take 9 seconds off the previous race record as well as setting a new outright Darley Moor lap record of 52.31. In Darley Cup Race 2 we finally got a great start, then moved into 2nd position into Park corner on the opening lap. From there we put in consistent fast laps to retain 2nd place to the flag. Coming across the line we could finally celebrate that we had won the 2023 Darley Cup championship! After a short break we were out in Twins Race 2, which was red-flagged on the opening lap due to a crash near the starting grid. After some clean-up work on spilled oil directly in front of our grid spot, the race was restarted. It was probably a good job that the cleaned spot was off the racing line as when we ran over it the rear wheel span and lost us drive on the way to the first corner. After spending a couple of laps chasing the leading trio down (1 rider in Twins & 2 in PreElectronic 600) we were in contention once again - despite taking a bit of grass on lap 5 at the Wilsons chicane - but as the leading Twin rider had now moved to the front of the group we thought it was time to try and make our way through too. But then at the hairpin on lap 5, one of the PreElectronic racers took an optimistic dive for their class lead and knocked backmarker Dave Graham off his bike. As little to no regards was being shown by this rider, we decided to focus on the job in hand and brought the bike home in 2nd place in class - and were able to celebrate that we had won the 2023 Twins championship! With two championships wrapped up we then got prepared for our final race of the season - and the opportunity to secure another championship. But with "slightly used" tyres fitted (231 laps on the front tyre and 127 laps on the rear tyre) we were hoping they'd last the distance. Unfortunately the race was never to be, due to an oil spill by a sidecar causing the cancellation of the remainder of the meeting. Just like the previous day, points were awarded based on the earlier heat race. At the end of the season, the points tables look as follows. We think that winning two championship and finishing 2nd in another is a fabulous result, so we're not too disappointed! Darley Cup - Final Championship Standings (Top 5) 1st: David Carson 84 2nd: Adam Green 57 3rd: Stephen England 52 4th: Matthew Rostron 35 5th: Grant Thomson 30 700cc Twins - Final Championship Standings (Top 5) 1st: David Carson 84 2nd: Ben Wilkinson 56 3rd: Anthony Thane 37 4th: Daniel Ingham 30 5th: Andy Whale 24 Formula 600 - Final Championship Standings (Top 5) 1st: Mark Goodings 64 2nd: David Carson 55 3rd: Jack Worth 43 4th: Adam Green 40 5th: Matthew Rostron 36 With the season now finished, we will gather together some stats regarding the season to produce another "Season Summary" blog.
But in the meantime we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our 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, Palletways and Rock Oil for their support. Thank you all for making 2023 another very special year! :-) Here are some more photos from the fifth round of the Darley Moor championships, taken by the talented Kevin Gunstone. His photos from the meeting are available here.
Here are some photos from the fifth round of the Darley Moor championships, taken by official Darley photographer Tony Else...
Round 5 of the Darley Moor club championships unfortunately clashed with the final round of the NG Road Racing championships at Cadwell Park, so we had to make a choice as to where to race - which was difficult as we were doing well in the championships with both clubs. We would just have to wait until the end of the weekend to see how things worked out... Arriving on the Saturday afternoon during a heat wave (some call it summer!) we casually setup - opposite the FHO Racing squad who were making a guest appearance - and then settled into watch some MotoGP and WorldSBK action on TV. When Sunday race day arrived the weather turned and light rain showers fell for most of the day. Prior to the start of the 10am Twins qualifying session the rain was very light and wasn't sticking, but once out on track it quickly got heavier (very similar what happened at Darley Moor Round 4) so we only did a couple of laps and pulled in. Learning from the last meeting we then promptly switched the Kawasaki Supersport machine to wet tyres - this meant that we missed half of the qualifying session but was the right choice. We qualified in 4th on the combined grid for the 700cc Twins (3rd in class), in 3rd for the Darley Cup and in 2nd for the Formula 600. Our first race of the day was Darley Cup Race 1. A good start saw us take the hole shot into the Wilsons chicane on the opening lap, but as we had new front brake pads and a new dry rear tyre to bed in, we were quite tentative on the first couple of laps. We expected that we may get challenged on these laps but we manage to stay in front and kept the lead for the entire 8-lap race, eventually winning by 14.65 seconds. During the race the quickshifter stopped working, so we had to manually shift gears - which was nostalgic! With everything now nicely scrubbed in we headed out for Formula 600 Race 1. An OK start saw us enter the Wilsons chicane in 3rd position, before moving past Chris Stuart on the exit of Park corner and then when Jack Worth overshot into Paddock corner on the opening lap we managed to take the lead. The quickshifter was still not working but we kept the lead for five laps, albeit not feeling overly confident with the constant rain drizzle. On lap 6 Mark Goodings took the lead on the entry to the hairpin. We tailed him home to finish in 2nd place. The last race before the lunch beak was Twins Race 1, where the rain drizzle had returned once again. A poor start saw us enter the Wilsons chicane in 5th position in the combined race, which is where we finished the opening lap. On lap 2 we managed to pass Aprilia-mounted Tim Walsh on the run to the back esses and then Adam Sheriff (PreElectronic 600) along the Pope Straight. On lap 3 we then used the power advantage of our Aprilia to pass Josh Froggatt on his fairly-stock Suzuki SV650 before taking the race lead outright on the entry to Paddock corner by passing Nick Clare (PreElectronic 600). From here we circulated safely but never really felt committed due to the conditions. This was a race where it felt like the bike did more of the work than we did! Despite getting caught up with backmarkers on the final lap we managed to take the win. During the lunch break we investigated the broken quickshifter and found that the live power lead wire had snapped from the battery terminal connector. With a new connector attached - and a quick test on the paddock stand - we deemed it functional once again! Onto the 'final' 10-lap races (where points and trophies are awarded) and first up was Darley Cup Race 2. The rain drizzle was still falling and we were still running on dry tyres. A quick drop of the lights caught us out and we bogged the bike and got a poor start, entering the Wilsons chicane in 7th position (from our pole position start!). On the opening lap we went up to 6th position, then down to 7th, then back up to 6th - finishing the opening lap 4 seconds behind the race leader. On lap 2 we moved past Josh Froggatt to take 5th position and by the end of lap 3 we were on the back of a group of riders. We remained in 5th position until we were able to make a move on Andrew Herd into Park corner on lap 7 - but by now were 4.42 behind the race leader. On lap 8 we managed to pass Adam Green into Park corner to take 3rd position, then on lap 9 - at Park corner again - we overtook Stephen England to move into 2nd position. At the start of lap 9 there was a 2.80 gap to race-leader Chris Stuart which seemed unsurmountable, but we pushed on regardless. Entering the final lap the gap to Chris had reduced to 1.52 seconds and by the end of the Pope straight we were on his back wheel. On the run to the line Chris starting celebrating early, but we kept it pinned and managed to sneak the win by just 0.02 of a second! The weather finally decided to brighten up for Formula 600 Race 2. A decent start saw us enter the Wilsons chicane in 2nd position behind Jack Worth. On the entry to the hairpin we were gently nudged out of the way by Mark Goodings on his Yamaha R6, which ran us wide and we were demoted to 4th position. We managed to claw back a position on the brakes into Paddock corner, then on the exit of Park corner Mark Goodings unexpectedly waved us through (which was a nice gesture) which elevated us back into 2nd position. On lap 3 we overtook Jack Worth at Park corner to take the lead. We then did a series of laps in the 59-second bracket, but it ultimately wasn't quick enough as Mark Goodings came past us at the start of lap 6. We managed to squeeze a little more speed out of ourselves and set a couple of 58-second laps - including the fastest lap of the race - but at the chequered flag we finished in 2nd place, 1.03 seconds behind Mark. Jack Worth took the final podium spot. The weather saved its best until last, with the sun deciding to shine down on track for our (and the) final race of the day, Twins Race 2. A poor start saw us enter the Wilsons chicane in 4th position on track (2nd in class), before Tim Walsh demoted us to 5th on track (3rd in class) at Park corner. We managed to retake 4th position on the brakes into Paddock corner on the opening lap and then set after the leading trio. On lap 2 we made a move on the brakes into Paddock corner to pass Nick Clare, then passed both Adam Sheriff and Josh Froggatt on lap 3 to take the overall race lead - despite running across the grass at the back esses during that lap. Once into the lead we put in some steady 1'01 laps which we thought should have been enough to maintain a lead. On lap 7 we had a look behind and saw that Adam Sheriff was on our rear wheel, so dropped our lap times into the 1'00s to extend a 3.04 second victory gap at the chequered flag. With another 42 (out of a possible 45) championship points captured this weekend, we have extended our championship lead in two classes and remain in 2nd place of the Formula 600 class. There are 30 championship points still available in each championship: Darley Cup Championship (Top 5) 1st: David Carson 60 2nd: Adam Green 41 3rd: Stephen England 40 4th: Matthew Rostron 29 5th: Mark Goodings 20 700cc Twins Championship (Top 5) 1st: David Carson 60 2nd: Ben Wilkinson 40 3rd: Anthony Thane 37 4th: Andy Whale 24 5th: Matthew Birks 20 Formula 600 Championship (Top 5) 1st: Mark Goodings 46 2nd: David Carson 39 3rd: Jack Worth 31 4th: Matthew Rostron 29 5th: Adam Green 28 But let's not forget about the NG Road Racing championships that also concluded on the same day. Considering that we competed in 13 of the 21 scheduled races, we are pleased with our finishing positions. We slipped from 2nd in the Supertwins championship to 3rd, but kept our 5th position in the Open 600 championship.
NG Road Racing - Supertwins Championship (Top 5) 1st: Brody Crockford 293 2nd: Edward Giles 230 3rd: David Carson 215 4th: Steve Moody 209 5th: William Holland 124 NG Road Racing - Open 600 Championship (Top 7) 1st: George Edwards 389 2nd: Ricky Elder 369 3rd: Michael Rees 199 4th: Jed Bird 172 5th: David Carson 142 6th: Aaron Matthews 83 7th: John Marsh 81 With this great weekend behind us, we now only have one weekend of racing left in our 2023 season - the prestigious "Stars at Darley" meeting on Saturday/Sunday 7th/8th October. Here are some photos from the Anglesey round of the 2023 NG Road Racing championships, taken by official photographer Colin Hill...
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AuthorDavid Carson Jnr, Archives
April 2024
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