Darley Moor - Round 1 Race Review (2024)

The eagerly awaited start to the Darley Moor season was upon us! Over the winter the organisers made many changes to the race classes but the main difference for the 2024 season was that every race would now have points allocated - meaning that a maximum of 30 points per class were now available per meeting, using the 15/12/10/8/6/5/4/3/2/1 point-scoring system where the Top 10 riders would earn championship points.

Saturday Test Day
We decided to head up to Darley Moor early on the Saturday morning for the two-day meeting, which meant an unusual early start for us. Having arrived at the track and setup - it almost immediately started raining! We didn't think there was anything to gain from going out in wet or damp conditions so had a relaxed day waiting for the circuit to dry.

Ready to roll

​After the lunch break we headed out for a shakedown test on the Kawasaki Supersport machine and during the session the quickshifter stopped working. Following investigation we found a break in one of the wires, which when fixed solved our problem. We then took the Aprilia RS660 Trofeo for a run and everything was fine so we parked that bike up, before heading back out on the Kawasaki to make sure that was working - it was and we managed to pop in a 59.92 lap time which we felt provided a sufficient warm up for the race day.

Doing a quick fix on the quickshift

​As it was a test day we had the luxury of riding both machines to scrutineering, which made life a bit easier. We then went to sign on to complete the end of our leisurely day, however... Whilst we were in the race office the wind picked up, ripped through the awning and knocked over the toolbox! :-(

​After putting everything back in its place, we setup the TV in the awning and watched the MotoGP coverage from COTA. Whilst we were sat outside - which was needed as we were streaming the coverage via mobile phone - all sorts of weather arrived, from wind and rain to a glorious sunset and even a rainbow!

Sunday Race Day
We awoke to beautiful sunshine which had dried up the overnight rain and the weather forecast for the day was looking promising. The majority of the grids were far from full at the meeting. With racing taking place at Donington Park, Cadwell Park, Pembrey and Olivers Mount on the same weekend it meant that riders were spread quite thin due to the multiple options available.

Our first qualifying session was for the Open 600 class. We were getting into the swing of things when the quickshifter stopped working again. We worked around the issue for a few laps and posted a 1:01.38 lap time that put us 5th on the grid. Back in the paddock we inspected the test day repair and found it to be intact - and then found that the wire had broken off the negative battery terminal. With that fixed we had a working quickshifter once again!

Our next qualifying session (on the Aprilia RS660 Trofeo) would provide our grid position for both the Darley Cup and 700cc Twins races. Our lap time of 1:01.34 was good enough to put us on pole position for both classes.

Our first race of the day was Darley Cup Race 1. When leaving the awning we discovered that the plug for the rear tyre warmer had been pulled slightly out of the socket and the rear tyre was luke-warm rather than being up to temperature. With this in mind we headed out on track and took it easy for the first few laps of the 10-lap race to make sure that some heat could build up in the tyre before we increased the pace. By the time we were comfortable Nick Clare had established a decent gap at the front, so we pushed hard and managed to catch him. After taking the race lead on lap 5 we focused on trimming our lap times - getting down to a 1:00.77 before almost catching the inside kerb at Wilson's chicane so decided to back it off a bit. At the chequered flag we had won the race by 28.55 seconds from Nick Clare, with Aron Redmond taking the final podium spot.

Photo by Graham Mallen

Next up was Twins Race 1 which shared the track with the PreElectronic 600 class. An OK start saw us enter the Wilsons chicane in 4th position overall (2nd in class). We managed to move up to 3rd overall on the opening lap and then into 2nd overall (2nd in class) on lap 2. From there we chased down Sean Seddon to move into the race lead on the Pope Straight on lap 3. Once in the lead we tried to put in a series of clean laps, setting the fastest lap of the race with a 1:00.25 and eventually taking the win by 11.36 seconds from Sean, with Aron Redmond coming home in third place.

Photo by Ian Kinnear

We got a decent start in Open 600 Race 1 to enter Wilsons chicane in 4th position and then moved forward into 3rd position on the entry to Park corner. We were then sat behind Adam Green and were weighing up where to try to make a move when Joe Holdsworth overtook us both and then disappeared into the distance. We then closely followed Adam for the remainder of the race - but as he was getting on the gas better than us and was good on the brakes no obvious passing opportunity was making itself available. Then on the final lap we managed to get a decent drive out of the hairpin and along with a slipstream were able to move into 3rd position at Paddock corner on the final lap. Up at the front, Mark Goodings took the win with Joe securing second place.

Photo by Ian Kinnear

Darley Cup Race 2 was very unusual in that we were the only competitor to arrive to the assembly area on time! The officials joked that we might be having a 10-lap parade by ourselves! Fortunately the other three competitors arrived and completed the sparse grid. After getting the hole shot into the Wilsons chicane we managed to retain the lead to the flag to win by 25.86 seconds from Nick Clare, with Aron Redmond coming home in third.

In Twins Race 2 we got a decent start to enter Wilsons chicane in 2nd position (2nd in class) behind Sean Seddon. As you can see in the video Sean was riding really well (and was even pulling rolling stoppies - the show off!) but when almost ran out of track at the Wilsons chicane at the start of lap 3 it allowed us the chance to nip through. Once ahead, we just tried to put in clean laps and manage to set a fastest lap of 1:00.85 on our way to victory. Sean finished in 2nd place and Aron Redmond took another third place.

Photo by David Chapman

Our final race of the day was Open 600 Race 2. Another decent start saw us retain our 5th position into the chicane, but queueing with the pack into Park corner allowed Chris Stuart to come around a bunch of us, which relegated us to 6th position. On lap 3 we managed to pass Adam Mather at Park corner to move up to 5th position, on lap 5 we managed to pass Chris Stuart into Paddock corner and then exactly a lap later we managed to pass Adam Green to move into 3rd position. For the final four laps we were in clean air and managed to set a lap time of 59.18, which was actually quicker than the race winner. Joe Holdsworth took the win, Mark Goodings took second place and we secured the final podium spot.

We leave this meeting feeling very happy with the performances and results. As always there are areas of improvement for us to focus on, but as we were riding well that is a good position to work from. The championship tables at the end of the opening meeting look as follows.

Darley Cup Championship
David Carson  30
Nick Clare         24
Aron Redmond  20
Martyn Cooper  16

700cc Twins Championship
David Carson  30
Sean Seddon     24
Aron Redmond  20
Tom Hodge        8

Open 600 Championship (Top 5)
Mark Goodings   27
Joe Holdsworth  27
David Carson  20
Adam Green      14
Adam Mather     10

We don't have long to wait until riding again, as we will be racing at the Wirral 100 Oulton Park meeting this coming Saturday 20th April. We'll let you know how that goes!