Father's Day was the date for the third Darley Moor event of 2025, so we made sure that there was plenty of food (and beer!) available for the weekend. We arrived on the Saturday afternoon and leisurely setup in the sunshine before watching some of the WorldSBK action on TV.
A "wheelie" exciting weekend (Photo by David Chapman)
We decided to set ourselves some goals/objectives for the event, in an attempt to try to get back closer to where we have previously been - we set targets to get back into the 59-second bracket on the Kawasaki Supersport machine and back into the "minute flat" (1:00) on the Aprilia.
 Ready to roll... |  ...after cuddles from the girls! |
Our first qualifying session was on the Aprilia where the session would give us grid positions for the Darley Cup and Supertwins races. In the busy session we struggled to find some space but did set a time of 1:02.55 on our single clear lap, which qualified us in 5th position for both grids.
After a short break we headed out for the Open 600 qualifying. For this meeting we had treated "the old girl" to some new dry tyres and front brake pads, so the plan was to spend the opening couple of laps bedding those in. The red flag was shown on the second lap, so we had a brief interlude before restarting. We managed a 1:00.96 lap which qualified us 7th on the grid of 25 riders. On our cooldown lap we noticed some riders approaching quickly, so went wide at the hairpin to get out of the way - but Tim Walsh had already decided to go around the outside which resulted in the unusual clash shown in the video below. Fortunately everyone was fine and I popped around to apologise for the confusion.
After a short break we headed out for the Open 600 qualifying. For this meeting we had treated "the old girl" to some new dry tyres and front brake pads, so the plan was to spend the opening couple of laps bedding those in. The red flag was shown on the second lap, so we had a brief interlude before restarting. We managed a 1:00.96 lap which qualified us 7th on the grid of 25 riders. On our cooldown lap we noticed some riders approaching quickly, so went wide at the hairpin to get out of the way - but Tim Walsh had already decided to go around the outside which resulted in the unusual clash shown in the video below. Fortunately everyone was fine and I popped around to apologise for the confusion.
Round 5
Out into the races and the first race was Open 600. A good start saw us enter the Wilsons Chicane in 5th position. From there we just tried to put in clean laps. Tim Walsh was the first to overtake us, followed later by Jordan Poole, but with Tim having some machine issues we finished the race in 6th position - having set a lap time of 59.33! That was our first objective achieved :-)
Next up was the Darley Cup race. We entered the chicane in 7th position and worked our way up to 5th position by the flag, setting a 1:01.39 lap time along the way.
Lined up on the grid
With only one race between the Darley Cup and Supertwins races, it wasn't long until we were back on track. A poor start saw us enter the chicane in 6th position, but we managed to work our way back up to 4th place before a little spray of water caught our attention, so we pulled out of the race to investigate. A rare DNF for us!
It turned out that due to the delays on the start-line some radiator water had been pushed to the expansion bottle - and there just wasn't enough capacity in the overflow bottle... After adjusting the water volume to more appropriate levels we were ready to use the bike again for the remainder of the meeting.
It turned out that due to the delays on the start-line some radiator water had been pushed to the expansion bottle - and there just wasn't enough capacity in the overflow bottle... After adjusting the water volume to more appropriate levels we were ready to use the bike again for the remainder of the meeting.
Round 6
After the lunch break we headed out for the second Open 600 race. We were 7th into the chicane and during the race found ourselves in a group battle for 5th position - but neither us nor Peter Fell could get passed the Triumph-mounted Antony Lewis. We crossed the line in 7th position with a best lap of 59.79.
Into the Darley Cup race and some bumping and barging saw us leave the chicane in 10th position. Throughout the race we moved up to 6th position and set a fastest lap of 1:01.10 - which was tantalisingly close to our target time for the day. Just a lack of clear track prevented us from going any quicker.
Our final race of the day was the 10-lap Supertwins race. Another poor start saw us enter the chicane in 7th position, but on the opening lap we overtook Aron Redmond to move into 6th position. On lap 5 we went passed Simon Cooper and on lap 6 overtook Peter Fell. At the start of lap 8 we managed to sneak passed Dave Glossop and into 3rd place. After a couple more laps we took the chequered flag and secured our podium finish! Along the way we had set a best lap time of 1:00.51 (and 4 of the laps were in the 1:00-bracket) - meaning that we had achieved our other objective for the meeting! :-)
At the end of a fun weekend at the track we were happy to celebrate Father's Day with a trophy - a feat that is becoming rarer these days!
A great way to spend Father's Day!
We now have four weeks to prepare for our next outing, which will be the picturesque woodland circuit of Aberdare Park on Saturday-Sunday 12th-13th July. This event will be televised, so with any luck we might even get a few seconds of airtime... ;-)
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