First round of DMMCRC (Darley Moor) 28 March 2004
After the cold and wet at Croft, I was hoping for a slightly better day and it was, thankfully.
I’ve never been to Darley Moor before, the circuit is like a narrow triangle, there are two straights and two sets of tight wee chicanes to get through at high speed which promised to be interesting.
As Neil and Jenny have moved to within 30 minutes of this circuit, it was a good place to have a second opportunity to get to know the R6.
It was another busy meeting with full grids, there was all sorts of machinery racing; from LC’s to Big Eddie Lawson replicas and CB 500’s with GP bikes and I could have raced in 6 races if I had known.
I managed to get some extra practice in (as I hadn’t been there before) and this gave me a good feel for the circuit, although I knew that the chicanes would take a little more practice.
I got a low grid position for race 1 (it was a number lottery out of a bag) and got position 23 in a grid of over 30.
First start was horrendous! The lights have changed from last year, so rather than them changing from Red to Green, when the Red light goes out, its GO !, it caused confusion and it resulted in a nasty accident at the first chicane, shortly after the start finish line. The race was stopped as someone had been injured.
Start two wasn’t much better, as a similar thing happened again and I ended up going over the grass to avoid hitting any debris.
I began to think that the starts were just too tightly packed and if it happened again I wasn’t going to risk the bike getting damaged.
The third attempt went well, but I didn’t push it due to the previous accidents. I settled in and began to pick my way through the field. It felt good and the bike was handling very well. I managed to pick off quite a few, by the last lap (the race was reduced to 5 laps due to the stoppages before). I came home in 12th, which I was more than happy with.
The race two start went much better and I was also given a grid position of 12, which was much better than the first race.
The race got away cleanly and there was only one incident, which happened at the 2nd corner. I settled in well again and began again to pass people. I had a good dice with a CBR 6 and another R6, but got the better of them. I enjoyed the technicality of the chicanes, as there is a lot to be gained by getting these right.
I managed to get into 7th position on the 2nd last of the 8 laps and finished here. That was a great result as It was only second time out on the bike on a track I didn’t know and up against Formula 600, tuned bikes.
It was a great day, with some good results to get me ready for East Fortune on the 17th and 18th of April and I feel ready now, in fact I can’t wait !
Thanks to all the sponsors and everyone who supports the team.