Heading up to Darley on the Friday afternoon, once setup we treated ourselves to some ice-cold Boddingtons bitter! This meeting also featured the return of former-Darley-champion Brad Vicars who was returning from injury and using the meeting to check that all was well with his recovery before his return to the Isle of Man and the Manx Grand Prix at the end of this month.
DARLEY MOOR ROUND 4
The promised warm weather arrived and it was both fantastic and a nightmare at the same time - such great weather to ride in but once you stopped it didn’t take long before you were drenched in sweat!
Out into the first (Mini Sound of Thunder) qualifying session we blew away some cobwebs and got quicker and quicker each lap, finally qualifying 2nd in class.
We were then straight out into the Formula 600 qualifying, where on the first flying lap Matt Zschiesche had a big crash on his Triumph 675 which brought out the red flag. Matt was generally OK but his bike unfortunately didn't fare as well.
Our first race of the Saturday was the Allcomers up-to-650cc race. We picked grid position 6 "out of the hat" and entered the first chicane in 4th position. On the opening lap we managed to pass Tony Griffiths and Alex Brawn to move behind leader Martin Robbins, then on lap two (of ten) we took the lead. From there it was quite a lonely eight laps to the end of the race where we took the win from Jason Wilkes, with Brad Vicars taking 3rd place.
Our third race of the day was the Formula 600 race. A good start got us into 4th place and some solid and consistent laps meant that we managed to maintain that position until the finish. But when he results sheets were published we discovered that a jump start by Rich Baker (with an accompanying 10 second penalty) meant that we took the final podium spot of 3rd place, along with our first ever Formula 600 championship points!
DARLEY MOOR ROUND 5
Sunday provided more fantastic weather for racing and qualifying went well - we took 2nd place in class for the Mini Sound of Thunder race and 4th place in the Formula 600 class. Unfortunately, our fellow competitor Jason Wilkes suffered brake failure in one of the sessions and both bike and rider were too injured to continue - get well soon Jason!
Unfortunately the front-facing GoPro camera mount snapped on lap four of the race (at 3:47 in the video below), so we captured some more interesting shots - but that meant no more onboard videos would be captured this weekend...
After a short break the race restarted and we settled into 4th place, which is where we remained for the entire race. We managed to cling onto some of the leading pack and on the final lap we set another new Personal Best lap of 59.73!
MINI SOUND OF THUNDER CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (TOP 5)
Elliot Williams 76
David Carson 48
Ian Robinson 21
Richard Stubbs 12
Jason Wilkes 12
FORMULA 600 CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (TOP 10)
Jamie Pearson 39
Carl Booth 28
Lloyd Shelley 27
Chris Sammons 27
Rich Baker 26
Matt Zschiesche 22
Stephen Parsons 18
Scott Stevens 11
David Carson 10
David Shallcross 9
Our remaining race meetings for the season are:
* NG Road Racing club at Castle Combe on Saturday/Sunday 1st-2nd September
* Darley Moor Round 6 on Sunday 16th September
* Darley Moor Round 7 (including the "Stars at Darley" races) on Saturday/Sunday 6th-7th October
If you attend any of these race meetings, please come over and say Hi! :-)