Darley Moor Rounds 4/5
Darley was always going to be tricky. Not only because of the extra power of those two Ducatis, but Mark Compton was there on his newly-tuned ’04 Aprilia plus Adam Tempest had decided to join us as he only lived a few miles away. I felt quite happy after the first practice and the Open qualifier, but struggled to get off the line in the SoT qualifying race, and getting off the line is probably the most important thing about this circuit. The grid forms up off the main track, then there is a short sprint to a very narrow chicane which is great if you’re in front but get caught up and you kind of have to wait in line to get through! I did get back in touch with the leaders but their pace didn’t seem that fast. Darley hasn’t moved into the 21st Century yet so there was no signal for my lap timer but when we checked the results I’d been doing low 1.01s every time I’d been out that morning. My fastest in ’05 was in the 1.00 bracket so I knew I could go quicker. I wasn’t too happy with the gearing, it felt a bit low and I seemed to be changing gear too much, so we geared it up as high as we could for the final. Again I got a rubbish start. Initially I was slipping the clutch ok but then it just seemed to hook up and send the front wheel skywards! By the time I’d put the front wheel down I’d lost loads of places. Getting back up with the leaders didn’t take too long, Darley rewards bravery especially in the approach to the chicanes so getting through people wasn’t an issue. Adam was in the lead at this point, followed closely by the Ducatis of Graham and Chris, Mark on their tail. By mid race I was right on them but they were all having such a battle and were all so close together that to overtake one of them I would have had to overtake at least three of them at the same time and Darley just isn’t big enough for that! I finished a slightly frustrated 5th, still feeling that I was a bit undergeared and still feeling that I ought to be going faster. Turns out that I actually did a 59.8, a personal best by a long way but as the race office was right up the other end of the paddock (and it shut soon after our race) no one thought to check the times.
The funniest part of the weekend was friday night's visit from a pair of drunken monkeys in the form of Open/Powerbike runners Darren Neal and Dave Hockham. The guys had got a lift into the local town earlier in the evening but hadn't thought of a plan to get back to the circuit. So, they found the local Pizza place, asked if they did delivery as far as Darley Moor, and on getting the answer yes, promptly ordered a pizza and asked to be delivered back to Darley with it!! Brilliant!!
So, Sunday morning and I decided we needed to change the gearing again. With no option to gear it up, we worked out that by gearing it right down I’d be able to use 3rd where I was previously using 2nd and that may give me what I needed. Practice made me feel that we hadn’t gone quite far enough so we lowered it again. The Open qualifier suggested we may have been heading in the right direction and although all my gear change points had altered, I was happier.
That happiness was short lived! My start in the warm up lap was terrible again so tried the option of pulling away with hardly any revs and hook 2nd early which wasn’t great but at least I wasn’t vertical! By the end of the first lap I was on the back of Compton still unsure of how or where to make a pass. At the last corner before the finish straight, he handed me the opportunity instead. Braking too late he went in far too deep and I remember thinking “thankyou very much!”. I kept it tight and tapped on the power to squirt past him but the next thing I knew, the back end had broken away from underneath me and I was tarmac-surfing towards the gravel trap! It was all very gentle but the gravel slowed the bike so quickly it stood up and slammed into the safety barriers side on. I was on my feet before I’d stopped sliding and jumped over the tyre wall in case anyone else decided to do the same thing later on. A couple of seconds later a couple of the Mini-Twins (650cc machines that run in the same race as the SoT) tangled and threw themselves towards where I’d just been! Their incident was bad enough for the race to be stopped (although both guys turned out to be ok) and the organisers decided to have a lunchbreak at the same time and to re-run the SoT race afterwards. That gave us 30 minutes to get Spidey back on track! I grabbed the bike from the tyre wall and pushed it up to the exit of the track. Chris and Pete were already there ready to help and Chris grabbed the bike, Pete took my helmet and gloves and I ran back to where I’d crashed to pick up any bits that may come in useful later on, in particular one of the silencers that had popped off in the incident. I forgot the pipe would still be hot but as I picked it up I soon realised! I threw it back onto my arms but where I’d undone the zips on the arms of my leathers, the hot pipe burnt my wrists, ouch! Just trying to get back to the truck to get the bike ready for the re-start and we were confronted by the most annoying scrutineer you could wish to meet. He was adamant that we couldn’t take the bike back until he’d done a full damage report and despite trying to reason with him or get him to come back to the truck with us and do his ‘report’ while we were cracking on repairing it, he insisted on taking his time. My frustration was starting to build but I kept calm knowing that if I told him what I thought of his approach that he’d no doubt take even longer! It was unfortunate that the other crash had taken up the time of the usual NG scrutineers as they are totally reasonable and would have all been willing to help in our quest to get back out on track. The final straw came when this particular individual decided to give us a lecture on why Pete shouldn’t have put my gloves inside my helmet (not something we usually do but we were all rushing) threatening to take the approved sticker off it so I wouldn’t be able to use it again. “Take the sticker off, I’ve got a spare” was my response. Finally back at the truck, Team Spidey flew in to action. It’s times like this that we show how good we really are! Panels were gaffer taped up, levers and footrests replaced, a new brake master cylinder was fitted and bled and the exhaust was re-fitted. Big C, Pete, Ricky and I all worked together, hardly talking, but all knowing what had to be done. Sian cycled up and found NG Scrutineer Dennis Guppy (former NG sidecar champion and the guy I passengered for at Darley in ’04) and he came down to us to give the bike the ok a soon as we’d done it. The tannoy started calling the re-started race and I told Ricky to stop helping and get his gear on (as he was racing his Benelli this weekend) which he finally did! I missed out on the re-start by about two minutes, not even quite able to get on the back of the grid for start after the warm up lap. If only that scrutineer hadn’t messed us about in the first place!
No qualifier meant I had to start the final from the very back. By the time we’d filtered through the first chicane the leaders were half a lap away but I made the best of a bad job and plugged away picking people off all the time. I got up to 7th as I crossed the line, right on the tail of two other riders but at least I got some points. Compton had crashed out (as usual!) and didn’t score anything so I ended the weekend 3rd in the Championship. In keeping with the day’s luck, the truck had a blow out on the way home and when I finally did home, someone had parked in front of the gate to the yard so I couldn’t get in! Oh well, better to get it all out of the way in one go!!
Beccie had to miss riding at this round due to other commitments but got herself up on the train Saturday afternoon and eventually managed to find the one cab driver at the station (out of about 30) who could not only speak English, but who also knew where Darley Moor was! Valliant effort.