British Forgotten Era Championship Rounds 3 & 4 - Darley Moor

Darley Moor was a great laugh. The best short circuit I have ever ridden on, but that is probably because it is the nearest thing to a road race as you can get, with a massive straight in it similar to Sulby Straight, trees hedge's and virtually no run off. The RG was going to 'honk' here.

In practice they sent us out in packs of about forty riders. It was great fun. I didn't get passed all morning, and the RG was passing R1's and Fireblades like they were stopped on the big straight. I felt really confident of getting a result here, especially as my main rival, Lea Gourlay, had decided to ride his 500 Yam instead of the big 750. OK, I was a newcomer, but my practice performance gave me a real boost, now all I needed was a good grid position.

In this Championship, the grid positions are picked out of a hat. My number always seems to be at the bottom of the hat unfortunately, and once again, I had to start from nearly the back of the pack.

It took me two laps to get through the big pack, up into second place. By this time Lea was too far in front of me to catch him, so I settled for a comfortable second place. When we saw the time sheet, I was lapping just as fast as Lea, so I thought that if I got a good start in the next race, I might be able to sneak a win.

It wasn't to be though was it? I got a good start from the second row of the grid and was holding onto about third place into the first corner, ahead of Lea and I was feeling good. However, half way round the first lap, the RG started to loose revs and it wasn't long before Lea got passed me. It didn't improve throughout the race and I ended up limping home in third place. I was really pissed off to say the least, because I thought I could have really pushed him. We eventually found out that a stupid electrical fault had made the bike go 'off' which made it even harder to swallow.

I had a reserve entry for the Open race and because I wanted to try the RG out again, I went to see if I could get a start. They let me go on the very back row of thirty five riders which was fair enough seeing as I was a reserve. I got a good start, before I got boxed in and had to back it off leaving me dead last going into the first corner.

But this was great fun. I got my head together, and started getting through the pack doing some of my best Jurby Road passing maneuvers. By lap six I had managed to get up to third place and was closing on circuit regular Steve Boam. Going into the first real ninety degree corner on lap seven closing on Boam, I lay her on her side a bit too hard and ended up with my elbow on the deck, trying to keep it from falling over, before I somehow managed to slide back into the seat.

Paul was watching (and laughing at me) at the corner, and said that I got a round of applause from the crowd. I couldn't stop laughing for the remainder of the race, and was happy enough to settle for third place in one of the best races I have ever ridden in for sheer enjoyment.

We had a long old haul back up the motorway to Heysham, with Paul revving the bollocks off the 'Motorhme' racing with a coach and several stops along the way for supplies. There were a few problems getting on the boat, but we just about managed to get home in one piece. Never has shower felt so good!