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Monday, 29th May 2000 Arrived at Darley Moor, only a couple of minutes from our B & B (The Beresford Arms Hotel 01335 300035). Juan had arrived in the middle of the night and slept in the back of his van in the car park..... it was raining again..... Jesus....... Practise was wet again.... I haven't had a dry practise yet. Darley is really narrow and it's hard to overtake.... easy enough to learn, but breaking points aren't, as I'm finding everywhere. I missed the first race, which was qualifying for grid places for the Peak Cup. It was only 4 laps..... I had forgotton my orange jacket, so I had to back to the van........ when I got back to the start, they wouldn't let me enter, cos the race had started..... shit..... bad start to the day. Juan fell off into Park Corner but was perfectly OK, as was his bike, he just went into the kittie litter and toppled over. My first race, then, was race 3 and I started near the back of the grid.... no warm up lap, straight on the grid and the lights turned green, made up a few places and then lost them all at the chicane... really aggressive, lots of fairing barging going on, nearly got taken out more than once. It was still pissing down and took it easy to make sure I finished. I ended up 21st, Juan was 13th and Graham 27th. Race 4 was the 400 race which Graham was in. He got a good start and was leading till the race was red flagged because someone fell off. The re-start wasn't as good and he was about 6th and finished 9th. Starts are really crucial, if you don't get a good one, you get held up while everyone filters through the chicane while the leaders pull away and you'll never catch them. Race 9 was my next one, the Peak Cup Final.... the weather had got better and there was a dry line. I was 30th on the grid and Juan was 31st. Lights went green and I made up a few places only to lose them again at the chicane. Juan charged past and buggered off to 9th place. I was 23 seconds behind him and finished 21st. I averaged 80 mph for the 10 laps, Juan averaged 82.79 mph. Feel like I'm getting quicker. Determined for the last race to catch Juan, he was 8 places ahead of me on the grid. Same again happened, a good start, was ahead of Juan and loads of others only to lose it again at the chicane. Juan again charged past and I tried to follow him. I braked too early for Park Corner and got done up the inside and got pushed wide, about 6 passed me and headed off towards Juan. I was really slow around the hairpin, couldn't carry much speed and this was the area I kept losing touch. I wobbled around most of the time, nearly came off once, when I hit the bank, just managed to stay on. Started to catch the guys in front, Juan leading the bunch, and seemed to be closing in on them after I managed to get past a bloke who was holding me up. I could see them about 200 yards in front and was leaving my braking later and was making up ground..... up until I braked hard going into Park Corner and the back wheel came off the ground, it started to go sideways, so I let go of the anchors and hit the gravel trap, which spat me off over the bars. The bike flew and landed on its right hand side again. Was well pissed off but was okay.. bike fared quite well...... just bent the fairing bracket and smashed the screen and top fairing, also lost my brake master cylinder reservoir, so it could have been a lot worse. So that was the end of my racing, I'm glad it was in the last race and not the first....oh well, live to fight another day. Already got the bits to fix the bike - new fairings, screen and the master cylinder is already on.... it's handy enough for spares during TT week. I'll just throw the lot together and I'll be ready to go again. Next races for me and Juan are...... Snetterton on June 17th and Mallory on June 18th...... my new van is going to make its debut...... ........tune in next time for another exciting episode of Tommy Clucas Racing. Darley Moor Circuit, Derbyshire. Circuit length: 1.50 miles
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Copyright © 2000, 2001 Tommy Clucas Racing.
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