Rounds 4 & 5 - Darley Moor
The weekend of 15th & 16th May saw us head to the Derbyshire circuit for the first
time. We were very excited about racing at Darley Moor as we have never raced there before. We arrived early friday afternoon
and set up camp and then had a walk around the circuit to familiarise ourselves. The track is quite narrow and although it
has a couple of chicanes overall it is very fast and boasts a pretty long straight too.
Saturday's practice cam around all too quickly and we headed off on our first ever laps of the circuit. It was
great fun but quite hard work too! We completed 6 laps in the time allocated and the gearing choice of a 35 tooth rear seemed
pretty good.
Race 1 came and the start was a real mess. We were allocated position
11 but due to the way other crews had positioned themselves found ourselves stuck at the back! The flag dropped and we got
oof to a slow start stuck behind a couple of slower outfits that took us almost half a lap to get past due to the tight nature
of the circuit. As the race progressed we found that the gearing was good for speed but lacked drive out the corners. We finished
in a very respectable 8th place and recorded a best lap of 1 min 20 sec.
During the
time before the second race of the day we chose to change the rear sprocket for a 36 tooth item that would give us better
acceleration at the expense of a little top end.
Race 2 began with us on grid 8 courtesy
of our earlier result and this made the start a much better affair. We had a great battle with the faster guysbut despite
our best efforts and a slightly quicker best lap ended the race in 10th.
Sunday saw
us take part in the practice session just for fun and we again covered 6 laps and really enjoyed ourselves although it was
now clear the front tyre was well past its best! Sadly there was not time to change it for a new one not that we had one anyway!
Race 1 was soon upon us and was absolutely brilliant. We got away at the start and kept in touch with the faster
guys and had a great battle first with the Imp outfit of Phil Luhr and Dave Currell and then once we were past them the immaculate
Weslake of the Latheron brothers. This saw us changing postions at least 3 times with us getting the better of them. As we
went through the first right hander after the startline for the final time we found a false neutral and were rapidly slowing.
Ian desperately tugged on the gear lever with his hand as Grants frantic prodding with his foot was proving ineffective and
all looked lost. Suddenly a gear was found and we sped off expecting to be passed by the Latherons but this was not to be
as they had dropped off suffering clutch problems. We finished in 7th and recorded our best lap of the weekend of just over
1 min 18.
Following the end of the race Dennis Etheridge heard of our tyre problem
and came to the rscue with a new replacement. We set to fitting this a squick as we could as there was not much time before
the lunch time 'taxi' ride. We managed it with literally moments to spare with Grant able to give a ride to Dave Tyler
and Dave Williams which we are sure they enjoyed.
Race 2 and the last of the meeting
saw us have a steady and uneventful ride coming home in 8th. We were pleased with this as the clutch was giving a little trouble
and had a faint hint of slipping as the race wore on.
All in all we had a great time and enjoyed
the circuit very much. The clutch problem was traced by Richard Darby to a well worn lever pivot - thanks Richard and we promise
there will be one meeting you come to watch us at that we wont make you get your hands dirty!
Rounds 1 & 2 - Pembrey
The Easter weekend saw the season opener with the CRMC and our first race meeting of the year. The venue
was the fast and fairly challenging Pembrey circuit in South Wales. For the first time ever we were in a position to take
part in the general test day on Good Friday and despite the dreadful weather during the morning which saw the circuit pretty
much water logged a lot of the time we gained some valuable track time and began to learn our way round.
Saturday
dawned dry to start with although the circuit was still pretty damp form the rain on Friday and overnight. It was not long
before our first race and we formed up on the grid in 14th position. The flag dropped and we got a good start. As we headed
to the tight hairpin for the first time we were confronted with an outfit that had spun and was facing the wrong way! We safely
negotiated our way through and worked our way up to 6th place but retired on the 4th lap with a gear linkage that would not
coperate! Back in the paddock we found that the gear box end of the gear linkage had bent and was causing the selection problems.
We swapped the end over and were ready for Race 2. Due to the DNF in Race 1 we were again towards the rear of the grid on
14th again. We got off to a good start again and worked our way upto 10th place and had a superb battle with Clive Faulkner
and Oliver Yardley on their Honda outfit. We swapped places several times during the later laps but a missed gear change saw
us drop off on the last lap to finish 10th.
Sundays first race saw us line up on an improved 10th position and
again we got a good start staying with the faster guys. Sadly we had another DNF and pulled off at the hairpin with a dead
outfit. We went to bump start to ride back after the race when the problem became obvious - the throttle twist grip had come
loose and was turning on the handlebar! This was a frustrating thing to happen but was easy to fix and after some loctite
and bolt tightening being done we made ready for the last race of the weekend. Again we were back on 14th courtesy of the
earlier DNF and had another good start. We had another good ride and ended the race in 8th following a good battle with Clint
Faulkner and Ben Gray on their Imp.
All in all we had a good weekend despite the DNF's and we are already making
some changes and getting ready for the next meeting at Mallory Park on Sunday 2nd May.