Darley Moor CRMC Round 3

It has to be said, when the CRMC calendar came out at the start of the year, both me and Ed were shocked to see Darley Moor was on the list again. Last season we didnt have the best of luck there after having overheating issues and snapping a throttle cable, and I was sure we had the Darley curse upon us so wasn’t looking forward to it at all.

As we set off on Friday night I didnt have that same buzz that I usually get when we set off to a race meeting and was sure the weekend was going to be 100% disaster. However, after looking at the weather forecast which said we were set for sun all weekend, there was still hope.

We got up early Saturday morning to get signed on and scrutineered and so far the weather forecast had been right. I was a lot happier too and felt as though the bad omens weren’t as bad as they seemed, either that or maybe id got used to having a pee in an outside toilet again, who knows, either way I didnt have the hump anymore

Practice went ok, we were definately the fastest out there, the trouble was we both wanted to go faster. We did have a little problem with a small miss fire again, but nothing too serious and it was just a case of changing the jets.

We were race 6 of the day and by now it was quite hot. It wasn’t the heat that bothered me, it was the flies, they were bloody everywhere. There’s nothing worse than been stood in the holding bay when its hot and you’re a little biit stressed and one persistent little fly keeps dive bombing you! We were on pole position for the race which was good, however we needed to get a good start and be first into the chicane otherwise it ends up like bummer cars and grass tracking. We didnt get a good start. We were down in fourth or fifth by the time we got to the chicane but 3rd by the time we got to the first hairpin which wasn’t so bad. We beat Simon Smith and Dave Gristwood in the esses and were closing on Matt Kingsmill. We were by far the quickest through the esses, taking it nearly flat out in top…. marvellous. We closed a lot on Matt Kingsmill by the time lap two came round and again going into the esses we got him. We didn’t really see him again after that, but I kept checking behind us just to make sure he hadn’t found more power from somewhere. We finished the race in 1st place with a comfortable 10 second lead and a new lap record!!

The second race was very similar to the first one, again we had trouble getting it off the line and got bogged down more, so consequently had to play a game of catch up. This suited me as it gave us a bit of a race and made us go faster. We had a bit more difficulty passing Matt this time and I think we got him on the left hander before the top hairpin but cant quite remember now. After we passed him, we were never troubled again so we knocked it off and enjoyed ourselves. We finished about 10 seconds in front of Matt again and broke the lap record for a second time!

Saturday night was good, there is no club house at Darley so the CRMC had organised a big marquee and a band to play who were very good. It turned out to be a very enjoyable night with some good banter.

Sunday we got a nice lie in as no engines can be started until 10am. This suited me fine as I had aches and bruises from the day before. We didnt go out for the sidecar practice, which is just as well really because I was only just getting out of bed when they called it. We were hoping for another good day and wondered if we could break the lap record again.

We were again on pole position for the first race on Sunday and didnt have quite as many problems with getting off the line but were still 3rd into the chicane. We again got Matt just before the hairpin I think and again were on our own after that. We did have to negotiate some back markers at both chicanes but all done without a problem and still finished 10 seconds in front.

The next race was a little bit different. This time it was us that was first into the chicane from the start and with hard breaking and taking a tight line into the first hairpin there was no way anyone was coming past. We had already created a big gap between us and Matt by the time we got to the second chicane and after the 3rd lap we could no longer see him so it was a case of cruise round and pick up the points. We were actually unaware that Matt Kingsmill/Alan Bedford had actually blown up half way through the race, which meant we finish 33 seconds in front.

There were no lap records to be broke on Sunday, but neither of us were bothered, we’d not put a foot wrong all weekend and the bike was just superb. Ive actually just looked up the lap times from the F2s at Darley and we lapped quicker than 80% of them on our little classic….. what a good do!

Our next CRMC meeting is Knockhill on 12th/13th June where we hope for the same results. Id also like to wish Nigel Mayers and Joe Shardlow good luck at the TT.

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