2012 Round Six: Darley Moor Sunday

Sunday morning came far too quickly. It was cold and before long, the leathers were slid into to finish the mending of dads bike. Even with the previous nights preparation, the shimming still took a while and with both of us aiming to get out for the practice, we were really pushed to get out. Everything came together with minutes spare and we both got a bit of practice. For me this was great as for the first time all weekend there was just clear track and I could learn like I should have the preceding morning.

Aside from fuel and the usual consumables and checks, there wasn't much done before the first of Sundays races. I had yet another close battle with Gary Biddle (58) and dropped my lap times and despite a jumping 2nd gear out of Park Corner, I still managed to keep it going. I had a great race, however, it appeared that dad (43) was in for yet more poor luck with a conrod failure that destroyed everything but the cylinder head.

Unfortunately, the condition of the barrel was beyond track side repair and potentially beyond repair at all so dad was going to be missing the last race. I felt great after my last race and after speaking to Mike Bonnet (98) about my gear jumping, he advised I push the lever as it might be jumping down. However, the oil leak I had been chasing all weekend was still not solved so this would need looking into.

As the final race approached, everyone knew it was going to be a damp race. As I mentioned in  an earlier post, I had replaced my front tyre with a Duro and had got some real confidence in it again. I opted for a Sava MC31 Soft on the rear as it would heat up quicker and I kept the front with Duro. I had been told confidence was the only thing needed for the wet race and I pushed a bit on the warm up lap but didn't feel the bike slip or slide at all.

I had a usual manic start but by lap two I was lapping sub 1m30s which gave me a great chance to get up to a good place in group four. On the last three laps, I ended lapping 1m24s. To put this into perspective, this was faster than my fastest lap of the weekends first race. I very nearly passed Steve Conneely (99) but settled for 7th in group four which felt great for my first wet race.

This weekend went much better for me than the previous meeting and even for dad, there was the silver lining that he had ridden really well and deserved better than he had achieved. A massive thanks goes out to him for his advice and help and to those at Replay Scooters and JB Tuning who gave us some great racing and plenty of laughs.

Photos: Lee Hollick Photography 

Race Scooter: All events occurred 12th August 2012

2012 Round Six: Darley Moor Saturday

As mentioned in my last post, I had decided to partake in the Darley Moor race meeting. I think that mostly I thought back to the race at Lydden Hill where I had to spectate and that gave me the motivation to make sure I was out racing again.

We arrived on the Friday evening - well more correctly - afternoon. This was an achievement in itself as for the first time all season, we both felt prepared. So much so that after setting up our gazebo, getting scuiteneered and fully unpacking, we still had a few hours before it was dark. So, armed with some drink, we decided to walk the circuit twice. It was quite nice to see the track at low speed as you feel like you notice things more than in the frantic practice session.

However, unfortunately, my practice session on the Saturday morning did indeed become more frantic. My clutch was massively slipping as soon as I delivered any real power. I was passed numerous times but stuck out there for the entire session as the engine didn't give me too much trouble in the corners.

After the session, the issue was quickly identified, rectified and tested. I now felt much more comfortable for the first race.

Race one was great with the bike sorted and saw me having a phenomenal battle with Gary Biddle (58). The spectators also had a great view watching my dad, Mark Thurland (43) stall on the line and chase through to 5th in class!

Race two saw me get some more good racing tracking down Chris Redman (88) and Trevor Childs (32) and cutting my fast lap by two seconds. I really felt like both I and the bike had improved over Lydden Hill. Unfortunately, I witnessed my dads (43) failed finish on the last corner of the last lap where his gearbox jammed and flipped him off the bike. For both of us it seemed a bit like deja vu with me experiencing the last corner last lap scenario at Cadwell Park earlier in the year.

I felt right on course for Sunday to be honest, I had been chasing a slow oil leak all weekend and had rode around the issue. It had been a success for me and despite one DNF for dad (43) he had ridden well and deserved better than he had achieved.

We set to work sorting out his gearbox issue before going out with the lads from JB Tuning which made a really nice change. I think it would be fair to say that we were both in a better mental state than at Lydden Hill two weeks earlier.

Photos: Lee Hollick Photography 

Race Scooter: All events occurred 11th August 2012