Darley Moor

I had the great pleasure of going to the Darley Moor event with my old mate Terry Beckett last Saturday. The weather was fine and bright and the racing was interesting and entertaining. My photographic efforts gave mixed results - more shots were deleted than saved - but some were worth public showing, and I have asked the ever helpful Ed Pickering to post them on here. The riding shots were taken at the braking area for the first tight right-hander.

Cheers Ed!

Sounds Interesting!-- thanks for thinking to post on here....

Go well and stay well,

JayBee--

Courtesy & Property Of John Colter.

I'm sure most of you know what's what, but just for the record, the photos are (Top to Bottom):-

Michael Brown's bike with the tank off. It seemed to have sprung a slight leak.

Mike Powell, on his 500 Seeley G50

Mike Powell and Ian Scutt, braking hard

The slight blur gives an impression of speed - that's my excuse, anyway!

Robert Duesbury

Michael Brown - having fixed the petrol leak.

Thank you -- Sweetness and Light!

Awww! Thanks John B - I've never been called THAT before.

Aw sorry John it was meant for the pictures -- sweetness & light but since you have been so  cyber nice to JayBee on here  I´ll take it your way -- S & L  ....

Darley Moor sounds rather like a quagmire sort of place where one needs Welies to go to the Loo and  gruesome figures emerge from the mist covered in filth and slimy muck so its   hard for me to imagine what the circuit looks like -- as a race track.  

I was looking up some old Green & Blue Uns (Motor Cycling and Motor Cycle) -- end forties -- and came across an article on NEW race circuits like Boreham and several other ex WW-2 airfields, Brands Grass track  and Cadwell Park extension  and even Crystal Palace as a motorbike racing circuit. I never saw a motorbike race at CP but was there for a Formula-2 race  with Graham Hill doing some winning -- must have been in the  late sixties -- early seventies.,  

Oooh! I´d better pack it in --  talking of the past upsets the half-century & below wallahs and they´ve been known to  send me nasty PMs laced with verbal malice which bounces off anyway ....

So,  Brilliant Moto GP win for Lorenzo weren´t it?  with Rossi still full of fire after all this time and Danny Pedrosa taking 4th ....

Take care. Go well and keep well,

S & L EverBee --

Darley Moor must have have been in operation, as a club racing circuit, for about fifty years. I remember going there to spectate, in the mid to late 1960s. I'm pretty sure it was an airfield during the second WW - in fact there are still light planes flying from the adjacent site. It is located in quite flat countryside, and seems to be very well drained, and rather an exposed, windy location. The circuit is flat, and basically triangular in layout, but incorporates some interesting corners. The meetings are generally well organised, and it is good for spectators. As far as I could tell, the only gruesome figure was me, as I emerged from the bog, shaking my hands (there were no paper towels).

Very unfortunately, a good friend of mine was very badly injured there in (I think) 1969. I wonder where Roger Stopford is now?

I Must apologise JC  -- sounds as if it is another of those exciting airfield circuits.

Talking about rotten toilets -- they are  not like that anymore, for sure -- Snetterton was awful back in the good old days and Cadwell only slightly better.  Last time -- 2012 -- at Cadwell I found it large and wet but more pleasant than it was in 1968 ....  

Its unpleasant how we who survived are reminded by a circuit or some other instance of daily life of the passing of a racing-buddy -- I think of Brands or Llandow  and immediately Cliff (Niffy) Goebells comes to mind. At Brands, in between practice and the race I got really nasty wiith Cliff over a simple question he asked and Landow has memories of him breaking a leg whilst leading a Bantam Novice race and then he died, crashing his Yamaha during the Manx. Just terribly unfair.

At Boreham, as a marshall, I got talking with the great Les Graham. That was the sort of man he was, talking to a lowly yokel of a marshall when lots of other famous people were hanging around him. When he crashed and died on Bray Hill during 1953 Senior  TT  I felt it a personal loss.

Better stop or else I shall be roasted for being a BOF ....

Cheers!

At last, the opportunity to get back to the forum after three weeks of computer disaster and the need to catch up with all that is happening in my world. Needless to say, I enjoyed Darley. I`ve spent some happy hours there, mostly looking for a rider or two for the next season, some years ago I`m afraid. John C is good company and has a great knowledge about racing Bantams(and anything else he could get his hands on) We had a good wander about and a hearty breakfast but couldn`t see anyone to talk to in the paddock so we made our way to what used to be a favourite spot for watching the future stars throwing their machinery down the road. I loved the cut and thrust of it again and must say the Bantams were really at the cutting edge of the hot competition. I spent over 40 years preparing two-strokes and trying hard to keep them as competitive for the punter as for those I sponsored. I was right. At he Mallory meeting Mike Powell was kind enough to hand me his cylinder. It was a simple Bantam device, water cooled of course with lots of expensive do dahs to prevent it blowing up. But the bit that produced the power was the simplest of piston ported two-strokes. A Bantam. But, as at Mallory, he made it into a flying machine. He and Mick Scutt were an excellent reason just to be there. My mantra was always Keep It Simple Stupid, a constant memo to myself. In the early days I was a 3rd and 4th man and realised It Is The Rider Stupid after watching JC perform on it.
I took a little time out to read up some of the comment on The Bantam Racing Manual. The dissertation on the tail pipe was great to read. Had I have read it when I needed it, instead of flying by the seat of my pants, it would have been so helpful. Hopefully, when I`ve squeezed a holiday in (does anyone know where the sun shines -please) I`ll pay more attention to these important things. Terry.

john bass wrote:

I was looking up some old Green & Blue Uns (Motor Cycling and Motor Cycle) and came across an article on NEW race circuits even Crystal Palace as a motorbike racing circuit. I never saw a motorbike race at CP but was there for a Formula-2 race  with Graham Hill doing some winning -- must have been in the  late sixties -- early seventies.,  


Take care. Go well and keep well,

S & L EverBee --

John I'm surprised you never knew about motorcycle racing at Crystal Palace. There were posters advertising it on railway platforms in the late 50s. Because you could get there by train it's the first place I went to see motorcycle racing. There were no run off areas that I recall so it must have been bloody dangerous. In fact I believe there were a couple of fatalities the day I went.

Hi Ned!

Nah, in the fifties it was scambles, grass track and speedway practice -- only now and again saw bits about road-racing -- to tell the truth the road frightened me: the speeds and precision required ...!!!???

Tommy Price of Wembley speedway fame went to the IoM (TT or Manx? forget which?) and fell on his head and was in a coma for quite a long time and Les Graham buying-it on Bray Hill in the `53 TT with all the fatalities attached to the Island put me off thinking about road racing. Les Graham talking to me -- as a lowly, yokel marshal -- at Boreham had me feeling I knew him personally and I really felt it when I heard the news....

I´d married and had kids and given up on motorbikes when Bantam Racing just happened to me -- must have been more dozy than usual at the time.

Hope you are keeping good shape.

Go well and stay well,

JayBee.

PS -- Hi Ned!

I did know that there was Speedway (Dirt Track) Racing at Crystal Place, way back in 1930  -- Fay Taylor the famous lady dirt-tracker started her fabulous career in a Crystal palace team ...

Cheers!

JayBee ....