Stars of Darley Moor
The Stars of Darley Moor
Darley Moor
As the track racing season for motorbikes comes to an end, there are a few odd ball races that are held this time of the year, celebrating the end of the season and putting a kind of thank you show for the fans.
The Race of the Year at Mallory and the Stars of Darley Moor are one off races where the stars of different race series can get together and battle it out to be crowned King for a Day.
Last year we went along to a glorious Mallory Park bathed in sunshine to watch Richard Cooper take the win at the Race of the Year. That event was cancelled this year due to a few of the regular riders being injured and a lack of entries.
So to get our fix of Richard Cooper we headed off to watch him take part in The Stars of Darley Moor. This is run over two races at the Darley Moor race track near Ashbourne in Derbyshire.
This track is one of the more obscure tracks in the UK, hosting its own Darley Moor Motor Cycle Road Racing Club Championships and track days.
It's not running what you would not call a jam packed racing calendar but then again a lot of other smaller tracks aren't either and are surviving, let's hope Darley can as well. The entry list for the Stars race looked good with John McGuinness catching my eye as well as Coops, so it was decided it worth a visit from the PistonClick team.
On the drive to Darley Moor we were in communication with the other PistonClick photographer who had suggested we cover this event. Our main topic of conversation was the weather as it was very bad.
There was a lot of rain overnight and it was still coming down in the morning, resulting in a lot of standing water on the roads which is not good for motorcycle racing.
We checked the various social media feeds and it appeared to be going ahead so we ploughed on. We did have a fall back plan - Donington, which is only 30 minutes away was hosting its first Rally event of the session, regardless of the weather, so we had a plan.
I did a little research on the track the night before setting off. In common with a lot of UK circuits Darley Moor was a former Royal Air Force Station before being turned into a race track back in the 1960s.
These days the track, which is a triangular configuration, still follows the route of two of the war time runways that the RAF heavy lift aircraft used many years ago.
The concrete runways have tarmac on them now, but the perimeter track that you access to park up right next to the track looks to be the original 1940s airfield perimeter track, now with modern day giant pot holes full of lovely brown water.
Drive slowly when picking a parking spot as some of the holes are big enough to be used as trenches, and bring sturdy footwear is my top tip of the day.
Once parked up and kitted out with suitable waterproofs, as it was still raining we went for a stroll around the facilities, first impressions were good.
A Café, shop, trade stalls and paddock are all located near the main entrance. But for me the spectator photographer, it was the view of the track that caught my attention.
A low tyre wall is all that is between you and the track. This gives you great views and the owners have also put in raised banking around a lot of the circuit for you to get an even better view of the action.
This is excellent news for the photographer as the banks can give you multiple angles to try; you can move down and across the slope to get a different view point.
As I mentioned, the track is a triangle so there are three corners with two Esses breaking up the straights. Doesn't sound too interesting, but take my word and check out the images.
There is more than enough to keep you the spectator photographer occupied. At first glance the Hairpin is the best location with loads of unobscured low and high view points.
Two of us used Nikon D4 and 3DX cameras attached to the Nikon super zoom 200 - 500mm for this event. David opted for the standard motorsport 70-200mm but attached to the Nikon D850 which has many, many pixels allowing him to crop into the image with great results.
There were 13 races held on the Sunday and 8 practice sessions, so plenty of opportunities to capture the action. Not bad for £16, which is £3 more than the normal Darley More MCRRC gate price.
The packed and interesting programme for this event was a reasonable £3. We have scattergunned images from this meeting throughout this report but will now look at some of the classes and riders in detail.
In the Allcomers race for motorcycles under 600cc it was Brad Vickers on the Kawasaki ER 650 who I noticed early on as one of the faster riders. He went on to take the win in the Allcomers and the Mini Sound of Thunder races.
Brad is an experienced rider who has competed at the Southern 100 road races and won the Newcomers Manx Grand Prix Race back in 2017. We last saw Brad up at Oliver's Mount a few weeks ago. Take a look at that report for a great picture of him getting some serious air.
Brad came second in the Formula 600 and Pre-Injection 600 and he was also riding a 1000cc BMW in the two races for the Stars of Darley trophy. However, the day didn’t start off to well for Brad as the wet track caught him out at Paddock corner.
Despite the early bath he bounced back later in the day to collect some well deserved club silverware.
With a lot of automotive sports there is a class that has been set up to allow cheap fun - competitive racing. In motorcycling one of the most affordable is the Honda CB500 class. These are the commuter and the courier's favourite bikes and were not so desirable to mainstream motorcyclists when they first came out, but sold well none the less.
Now they can be picked up quite cheaply and make a reasonable race bike, being reliable and affordable.
Only having about 50bhp to play with and a top speed of 120mph, the CB500 is never going to set the motorcycle world on fire. But put a load of them out on track and you get some great close racing that is more about the skill of the rider than the amount of cash they can throw at a motorcycle.
77 Liam Clements put in a monster effort to take the race win taking the lead on the last lap from 6th position on lap one. This massive effort in tricky conditions didn’t give him the Championship title he was after, Mark Brailsford took that by 4 points after coming in 7th on the final Honda CB500 race of the season.
Second in the race was #7 Dave Grace and third #711 Brenden Brown.
The combined Junior and Senior Championships had a number of classes running together with #102 Andrew Widdowson taking the overall win.
The race commentator mentioned there was a championship decider taking place between three ladies. A quick check of the programme and #66 Katie Hand running in 8th was identified. She was about to become the Club’s first female solo Champion so a little bit of history has been captured here.
Scarlett Robinson #4 and #16 Jamie Hanks-Elliott were second and third in the championship and in a tight battle all the way through the race, which also nicely represented the Championships final standings.
It wasn’t just solo motorcycles at Darley. The sidecars were out entertaining the fans as well with two races and a practice session. When I'm at a race meeting and the sidecars are out on track they are a must see race for me.
They can produce some great racing and for the spectator photographer they give so much. Find a spot at the end of a straight, preferably a left hand corner, and you might get flames from the exhaust and the third wheel in the air.
Darley Moor is all right handers and it was very damp so no flames were seen, which is a shame. John Holden and Tom Bryant in the number 3 Silicone Barnes Racing machine won the first race, with George Holden and Oscar Lawrence in second. John Holden is George Holden's father, so to keep a bit of family rivalry going, George went out and won the second race beating his dad into second place.
Picking up the third podium in the first race were #37 Knight / Hughes on the LCR 600 and in the second #46 Eades / Griffiths. To keep me on my toes Tom Bryant was wearing someone else's leathers. I have confirmed with him that he was in the race.
So on to the main event - the Stars of Darley Moor and the reason we had come along to this track on a cold rainy October Sunday. Having well known riders taking part in a race will bring the crowds in, and it had done that indeed. The event was well attended, and considering the weather, it says a lot about the draw of these particular "Stars".
Richard Cooper (Coops) and John McGuinness (McPint) were the main attraction for me both on the Build Base Suzukis which are very photogenic machines.
John McGuinness has now competed at 21 Stars of Darley Moor in a row, so should know his way round and I was looking forward to capturing him on the track. McPint is a road racing legend with 23 TT wins and 43 podiums, and has a huge following within the road race community. He managed 2nd place in the first race and third in the second race.
#41 Milo Ward was P3 in race one and P2 in race two. Milo is a 1000cc Superstock racer in the British Super Bike support race series for G&S Racing. He has just confirmed he will be with the team for 2020 making it three years in a row with G&S Racing aboard the Kawasaki.
In the first race Milo was on the back tyre of John McGuinness through out the race. In race two McPint got away on the first lap but was overtaken by Coops and Milo which must have boosted Milo's confidence for this weekend's BSB meeting and next season.
Richard Cooper was crowned the Star of Darley Moor for a record equalling 6th time; he is now level with Michael Rutter. It's been a good year for Coops, winning the Superstock 1000 championship with three rounds to go in the BSB support race series aboard the super quick Build Base Suzuki.
Due to the bad weather no lap records were going to be broken over the weekend, which kept the current lap record holder happy. Peter Hickman who holds that record at 52.66 seconds and 102.54mph was at Darley to watch Coops win but wasn’t competing.
Hicky will be at Brands Hatch with Coops and Milo this weekend where the Pistonclick team will catch up with them for the final round of the British Super Bikes.
We will be back at Darley Moor for the Stars next year and I hope you have enjoyed this report and it inspires you to get out and take a few snaps at Darley Moor.
We will also be producing a detailed Photographic Guide to Darley More - keep an eye on our Facebook page for that. I would like to thank David Harbey and RW Photography for the chat, banter and most importantly standing out in the pouring rain to capture some great images and helping out with this report.
Below are a few images that didn't make the cut but still worth a look.
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