Darley Moor - Round 4 Race Review (2017)

At Darley Moor Round 4, we were only 0.10 of a second away from the perfect weekend! We got pole position in both classes, all 4x fastest laps, 3x wins and a 2nd place (only 0.10 of a second behind the winner).

It was only a week ago that we were black flagged in the final race at Castle Combe. With David Jnr working away in London all week it was a busy Saturday morning preparing our Kawasaki ER650 Supertwin for the Darley Moor meeting (alongside the usual domestic chores like clothes washing and mowing the lawns!)

Trying to save some time...

...by working outside

After we refitted the top-yoke mounted front camera, reparied the rear exhaust mount, cleaned the brakes (which involved popping a piston out by accident - Doh!) and giving the bike a good clean, we were good to go.

We arrived at Darley slightly later than usual but still managed to bag our usual spot. After setting up and signing on, we went for a wander around the paddock and spent some time with Jorge Halliday (and dad) and then with Stuart Hall and Mike Gittings - who had spent the Saturday racing at Aintree.

Raceday Sunday started bright but a short rain shower arrived at 08:45 and then (fortunately) quickly went away, with a dry day to follow.

Heading out into qualifying, we were not feeling 100% comfortable on the bike, which resulted in a lack of commitment in the braking areas and a reduced corner entry speed. We only got two clear laps and put in a 1'03.51, which it turned out was good enough to put us in pole position for the morning races.

Waiting for the races to start...

Our first race of the weekend was Formula Darley race 1, where we lined up on grid with British Superbike star Richard Cooper who was racing a CB500 for a bit of fun (and he managed to lap in the low 1.04s!). We got a good start and entered the first chicane in 2nd position, behind Joe Walton. On lap 2 we managed to take the overall race lead and then at the start of lap 3 Chris Moore (in the Lightweight class) passed us on his Yamaha 250GP machine. We tried to keep hold of Chris throughout the race but couldn't quite hang on, and we finished just under a couple of seconds behind him at the chequered flag. But we won our class, with Joe Walton finishing 5 seconds behind us in 2nd position and Elliott Williams taking 3rd position a further 20 seconds behind Joe.

Photo by Graham Mallen

Photo by Graham Mallen

Mini Sound of Thunder race 1 was the next race up, where we were sharing the track with the larger-capacity Sound of Thunder machines. Starting from 7th on the combined grid, we were also 7th into the first chicane behind Joe Walton who had got a great start. We followed Joe until the end of lap 3, where we made a move on the brakes at the final corner to take the lead of the race. From there we tried hard to put in a series of quick laps (with our fastest official time being a 1'01.68, close to our Personal Best lap time of 1'01.49) and managed to keep the lead until the flag to take the win from Joe Walton, with Jack Petrie taking the final podium position. As you can see in the video below, a couple of the Sound of Thunder riders had an interesting end to the race - with two riders returning to the track after running onto the grass.

Photo by Graham Mallen

Photo by Graham Mallen

After the lunch break we headed out for Formula Darley race 2. Another good start saw us enter the first chicane in 2nd position. We were hot on the heels of Joe Walton for the first half of the race - but with the speed of his Suzuki SV650 Supertwin matching the speed of our Kawasaki ER650 Supertwin - we had to take every passing opportunity that was available, including a daring overtake into the fast back esses on lap 5, which allowed us to take the lead. With some clear track ahead we were able to put in some consistent fast laps and we won the race with a 8.5 second margin by the end of lap 8. Joe Walton came home in second position, with Jack Petrie coming home in third.

Photo by Graham Mallen

Photo by Graham Mallen

Our final race, Mini Sound of Thunder Race 2, was the most challenging race of the day. We got a fantastic start and entered the first chicane in 4th position overall from our 7th position combined-grid starting spot. Into Park corner, we were passed by one of the larger-capacity Sound of Thunder machines, who then tried to crash in front of us on the exit from the corner! Not knowing what would happen, we momentarily backed off the throttle, which meant that two more of the Sound of Thunder class riders were able to overtake us on the straight leading up to the back esses.

For the next few laps, we unfortunately became locked in a battle with Sound of Thunder rider Ian Robinson - which was entertaining but allowed Joe Walton to extend a 4-second lead by the time our battle with Ian ended and we had got into some clear track on lap 4. The rest of the race was spent attempting to close down Joe, which we almost managed to do - crossing the finishing line just 0.10 of a second behind him, taking second place, with Jack Petrie taking another third place. On the last lap of the race we also managed to match our Personal Best lap of 1'01.49 - proving how hard we were pushing!

A couple more winners trophies for the collection!

Overall we would need to summarise Darley Moor Round 4 as a great weekend! We left the meeting with a working bike, the lead in two championships, a couple of trophies and we lapped as fast as we have ever been!

At the halfway point in the Darley Moor season, the current championship positions are as follows:

FORMULA DARLEY - TOP 5
David Carson  52
Chris Moore    38
Joe Walton     22
Jamie Hodson 18
Jack Petrie      16

MINI SOUND OF THUNDER - TOP 5
David Carson  49
Joe Walton     33
Jack Petrie      22
Stuart Hall       18
Jamie Hodson 18

Our next event will be Darley Moor Round 5 on Sunday 13th August.