Darley Moor - Round 3 Race Review (2024)

We arrived at Darley Moor Round 3 straight from the Wirral 100 meeting at Oulton Park which meant a late setup in the paddock. After a quick snack we settled in for the night and had a lengthy sleep!

Upon waking we needed to get the scrutineering and sing-on activities out of the way. We still felt achy and exhausted from the Oulton Park meeting despite a good night's sleep - but had no choice but to soldier on during the beautifully sunny summer day...

Photo by Glyn Ivings

During the journey to the circuit we had googled possible reasons for the Aprilia engine management light that had shown during the Oulton Park meeting. The display of the engine light indicated a minor issue somewhere, which was somewhat reassuring. A loose battery connection was cited by several websites as a possible cause, so on the Sunday morning we checked the connections and then decided to disconnect the battery and reinstall. Afterwards, the engine light icon disappeared - and never reappeared!

Our first on-track session was Open 600 Qualifying. There was a lot of traffic to content with but we found a clear lap and posted a 1:01.27 lap time which put us 4th in the qualifying standings.

Shortly after we headed out for the combined Darley Cup & 700cc Twins Qualifying. We made a few mistakes during the session by using the 600 gear pattern - whereby we came out of the hairpin in 1st gear and when we snapped opened the throttle the front wheel went skyward! After calming down we managed a 1:01.49 which set Pole Position for both classes.

Our first race was Darley Cup Race 1. After an OK start we settled into 3rd place. On lap 2 Jim Hodson appeared to miss a gear coming out of the hairpin which allowed us to take the position and move behind race-leader Nick Clare. At Park corner we attempted an ultimately-unsuccessful move around the outside, followed by an unsuccessful attempt at Townleys. But at Park corner on lap 4 we managed to successfully make the move and then retained the lead until the flag to take the win! Along the way we set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:00.36.

Photo by Kevin Randle

For Open 600 Race 1, championship leader Mark Goodings was made to start from the back of the grid following a policy/rule infringement. This elevated us to the front row of the grid in 3rd position. An OK start saw us fall to 5th place by the end of the opening lap and then be relegated to 6th position by the end of lap 2 when Mark Goodings came passed. A large group had formed from 2nd-6th positions and on lap 4 Chris Stuart tried to highside out of Park corner which allowed us to move up to 5th position in the group. We tried to make further progress but couldn't and eventually crossed the line in 5th position, having set a best lap time of 59.48 along the way.

A word of warning regarding the 600 onboard videos - they are very shakey at times which isn't great. We'll try to resolve for the next meeting!

Photo by Graham Mallen

The final race before the lunch break was 700cc Twins Race 1. The grid numbers were low again at this meeting but the appearance of Jim Hodson provided a challenge - even though he was racing in the 650cc Twins class. Jim got the jump on us and with his bike being a very similar speed along the straights he kept us behind until lap 4. Once in the overall race lead we set some solid laps to stretch an advantage and won the race and set the fastest lap of 1:00.79 along the way.

Photo by Ian Kinnear

Darley Cup Race 2 was similar to the opening Twins race, with us following Jim Hodson for a few laps again before taking the lead. At the end of the 10-lap race we took the win by 12.86 seconds from Nick Clare, with Jim coming home in third place. We set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:00.95.

Photo by Graham Mallen

In Open 600 Race 2 a good start saw us enter the Wilsons chicane in 2nd position, just behind Adam Mather. We tailed Adam for the first half of the race, looking for a way through, and eventually managed to move into the lead on lap 5 and then just tried to put in consistent laps. On lap 8 we approached Mike Hanrahan and narrowly managed to sneak passed him into the back esses (apologies if it was a bit close Mikey! See around 08:30 in the onboard video).

At the end of the 10-lap race we had WON THE RACE! For us nowadays, overall 600 race wins are quite scarce and are highly valued by us, so by the time we returned to the paddock we were quite emotional and extremely happy that we had managed to secure this result.

Photo by Graham Mallen

The final race of the weekend was 700cc Twins Race 2. The race was very quiet with a number of starters missing from the grid. After passing the quick-starting Anthony Thane on the opening lap we barely saw anyone else during the 10-lap race, circulating in consistent 1:02s laps, to secure the fifth win of the day for us!

Another great day at the track!

The end of this meeting marks the halfway point in the Darley Moor championships. The tables currently look as follows.

700cc Twins Championship (Top 5)
David Carson     84
Josh Froggatt       30
Sean Seddon        24
Aron Redmond     20
Fraser Heginson   12

Darley Cup Championship (Top 5)
David Carson     82
Nick Clare            70
Mark Pattinson     30
Aron Redmond     20
Jim Hodson          20

Open 600 Championship (Top 5)
Mark Goodings     77
David Carson     63
Joe Holdsworth    54
Adam Mather       41
Chris Stuart         33

Our next time out on track will be back at Darley Moor on Sunday 8th September for Round 4 of their championships.
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