26 May 2009 11:29 - Nick Robinson
Darley Moor or Darley Mud?
On the 15th, 16th and 17th of May our happy band bravely set off with the newly mended trailer, and intrepidly trekked the 46 miles to Darley Moor.
We got there fairly early and managed to secure a good pitch with enough room for Andy, Lorraine and Chris, along with space for the band of happy campers who were coming to spend the weekend.
With all of the people camped around us, it looked like some sort of weird protest site.
Just after we got the tent up, I started raining.................and it didn't stop!
Practice went well, I remembered which order the corners at Darley came in, and Shelli seemed to learn the track very quickly.
In what should have been the first race on Saturday, but actually ended up being the only race that day, (due to delays caused by rain and solo riders running out of talent mid-corner) we did really well, finishing 7th in class (10th overall). On lap 2, we passed Reg and Kerrie going through the bottom chicane, at the time I couldn't understand why Kerrie was shaking her head at me as we passed.......she later told me that the only wheel we had on the ground was the sidecar wheel!
In the first race on Sunday (actually Saturday's second race??) the vast amount of water took a toll on the ignition and the bike developed a mis-fire, and we banged and farted our way round to finish 6th in class (8th overall), helped in part by the fact that other teams bikes were also wetter than an otter's pocket.
After that race our highly skilled technical team (or; if you prefer; Andy and Howard, looking confused) set to with can's of WD40 and loads of enthusiasm to see if the misfire could be cured. Unfortunately, their travails were to no avail and in the second/first race (Are you following this?) the misfire was worse. Due to a complete lack of power at low revs, I decided that the best was to get around the hairpin was not to shut off, it worked quite well, but on the next lap, I noticed that all of the marshals took a step back as we approached! Cowards!
We decided not to bother with the last race, as it was now even wetter, and it was apparent that we could not cure the misfire.
A couple of days after the race meeting I took a break from drying out camping gear to accompany Howard to Bradford, where we had a look at another Imp outfit (in kit form).
Howard has now bought this, and we will be rebuilding it for Howard to race with Chris in the chair.
Along with Andy and Lorraine, also running in our colours, we shall try and hold off the march of the Evil Green Empire of team Gristwood and Toms!
That's all folks!
The next meeting is Donington Park on the 19th/20th/21st of June.............If they've finished building it.
Nick