After our recent outing to Aberdare Park it was time to return to the more familiar surroundings of Darley Moor for the fifth meeting of their championships. For us, this would be a meeting of two halves - demonstrating why motorcycle racing can cause epic highs and epic lows all within a short timeframe...
The weekend shared the calendar with the British round of the MotoGP at Silverstone, so of course we made it our duty to keep up to date with all of the action! And whilst some new dry tyres were being fit to both bikes (yes, we treated ourselves...) we walked the track to check out the recent maintenance changes to the kerbs.
The weekend shared the calendar with the British round of the MotoGP at Silverstone, so of course we made it our duty to keep up to date with all of the action! And whilst some new dry tyres were being fit to both bikes (yes, we treated ourselves...) we walked the track to check out the recent maintenance changes to the kerbs.
 Multi-screen MotoGP action... |  The track proved popular |
The day started with the Open 600 Qualifying. Except for the steering damper being too firm (a carryover from the Aberdare meeting) which made it physically difficult to make quick direction changes through the back esses, we had a decent session and our lap time of 1:00.07 was good enough to give us a front-row start for the races in 3rd position.
After a short break we headed out in the combined Supertwins and Darley Cup Qualifying. We spent the first couple of laps ensuring that the new tyres were scrubbed in, but then after three laps the rear brake stuck on meaning we had no choice but to pull off track. We hobbled back to the paddock hoping that the issue would be obvious and we could resolve it quickly, but nothing obvious stuck out - so we disassembled the caliper, cleaned it, reinstalled it and hoped for the best... The worst news was that our "best" lap of 1:07.24 was taken as our qualifying time for the four races we had for the day - this placed us 12th on the Twins grid and 16th on the Darley Cup grid. This meant that we were now in "damage limitation" mode and any chances of podium results were looking unlikely :-(
Our first race of the day was Open 600 Race 1. We got a decent start and kept 3rd position into the Wilsons Chicane, before Matt Zschieche came passed into Park corner on the opening lap. We followed Matt until the final corner on lap 6 where we were able to make a pass on the brakes. From there we got our head down, did a couple of clean laps (our best was a 58.82) and crossed the line in 3rd position!
After a short break we headed out in the combined Supertwins and Darley Cup Qualifying. We spent the first couple of laps ensuring that the new tyres were scrubbed in, but then after three laps the rear brake stuck on meaning we had no choice but to pull off track. We hobbled back to the paddock hoping that the issue would be obvious and we could resolve it quickly, but nothing obvious stuck out - so we disassembled the caliper, cleaned it, reinstalled it and hoped for the best... The worst news was that our "best" lap of 1:07.24 was taken as our qualifying time for the four races we had for the day - this placed us 12th on the Twins grid and 16th on the Darley Cup grid. This meant that we were now in "damage limitation" mode and any chances of podium results were looking unlikely :-(
Our first race of the day was Open 600 Race 1. We got a decent start and kept 3rd position into the Wilsons Chicane, before Matt Zschieche came passed into Park corner on the opening lap. We followed Matt until the final corner on lap 6 where we were able to make a pass on the brakes. From there we got our head down, did a couple of clean laps (our best was a 58.82) and crossed the line in 3rd position!
Photo by Graham Mallen
Our next race was Supertwins Race 1, starting from 12th on the grid. Not knowing whether the rear brake issue was resolved, we warmed into the race whilst being alert to any potential issues. By the end of the opening lap we had moved up to 8th position, then to 6th by the end of lap 2 and up to 4th position by the end of lap 3. These opening laps had been (relatively) slow and by the end of lap 3 we were 8.26 seconds behind the race leader.
Feeling that the bike was OK to push on, we did - and the majority of the remaining laps were in the 1:00 barrier. By the end of the race we had set the fastest lap of the race (1:00.09) but that was only good enough for 3rd position, 1.41 seconds behind 2nd place and 6.10 behind the race winner. Our takeaway from the race was that "at least we were riding well"...
Feeling that the bike was OK to push on, we did - and the majority of the remaining laps were in the 1:00 barrier. By the end of the race we had set the fastest lap of the race (1:00.09) but that was only good enough for 3rd position, 1.41 seconds behind 2nd place and 6.10 behind the race winner. Our takeaway from the race was that "at least we were riding well"...
After a short break we headed out for Darley Cup Race 1, starting from 16th on the grid. We got a good start and by the end of the opening lap were up to 7th position on track. On lap 2 we moved into 6th position and on lap 3 we moved into 5th position. The gap to the next rider on track was 7.74 seconds at this point, but we decided to push on regardless. By the end of the race we had reduced the gap to 3.87 seconds and were the second-fastest rider on track - but we crossed the line in 5th position (4th in class).
Photo by Graham Mallen
After the lunch break we were out on the Kawasaki in Open 600 Race 2. This race was originally started, but then red-flagged on the opening lap. After a short break we were given another warm-up lap and then our full-length 8-lap race. In the restart, we didn't get a good launch and entered the Wilsons Chicane in 6th position, but managed to recover a position on the entry to Park corner on the opening lap. From there we worked hard to pass Peter Fell - who was doing a great job on corner exits (something we should maybe work on) - and we managed to sneak passed at the end of lap 3. At this point we were 2.26 behind 3rd-placed Matt Zschieche. We put in 3 hot laps but were not closing the gap, so knocked it off for the last couple of laps to secure our 4th position finish.
Warmers off, we're ready to roll...
Our last race of the day would prove to be Supertwins Race 2, again starting from 12th on the grid. We got a good start and wanted to make our way through the pack as quickly as possible - but even we were surprised when we managed to end the opening lap in 3rd place. From here we closed the gap the 2nd-placed Richard Fogg but struggled to make a move until he made a mistake at the Wilsons Chicane at the start of lap 6. We nipped through and then went into Park corner - but when we got on the gas the bike felt weird and sluggish. It turned out that the right front brake caliper had started to drag. Unfortunately this meant that we retired from the race. Once back in the paddock when things had cooled down, the brake operated like nothing was wrong - but on safety grounds we decided to retire the bike for the day...
What was really weird was the way in which the change occurred so quickly. The incident is shown from 5:30 in the video below.
What was really weird was the way in which the change occurred so quickly. The incident is shown from 5:30 in the video below.
Photo by Graham Mallen
So that was the end of another day on track. We were happy because we felt we were riding well and we were happy with the lap times we were doing, but equally we were frustrated that machinery issues thwarted our day. And not like we needed reminding - but a decent qualifying session at Darley Moor really can make or break your day!
Due to the morning races we still walked away with a couple of trophies (and a rider in one piece) - so we didn't have the worst of days!
Due to the morning races we still walked away with a couple of trophies (and a rider in one piece) - so we didn't have the worst of days!
Our next planned event is Darley Moor Round 6 on Sunday 20th September. Before then we'll assess the machinery situation and hopefully come back stronger! Thanks for staying with us and as always, we'll let you know how we get on...
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