Darley Moor Road Races Round 6

10th October 2020

The last time I went to photograph the racing at Darley Moor was about a year ago. That was the Stars of Darley, a one off race meeting where the likes of Isle of Man TT legend John McGuinness and British Super Bikes regular Richard Cooper raced to celebrate this great little track. 

This meeting, however, was your standard grass roots motorcycle club meeting with the added bonus of side cars and kart racing.

When I say standard club grass roots racing that is true because that’s what is was but it didn’t mean there wouldn’t be close competitive racing with the rider giving it their all for the win. 

While looking through the programme a few names stood out ad it was evident that some of the racers out on track had a great deal of road racing experience.

At the other end of the spectrum, sporting the orange bib of the novice rider, some would be starting their racing journey in the far from ideal autumnal conditions.

The front cover of the programme presented the meeting as "The 2020 Covid-19 Restricted Road Races" and this got us chatting. What is the difference between a road race and a circuit race?

To me and the rest of the guys, a road race is one that is held on a public road that has been closed for the duration of the race.

A circuit is a closed track just used for autosport racing.

Is it the track surface?  It looked like standard road surface at Darley. I did email them but the reply made it no clearer. If you know, drop a comment on the Facebook page - these things keep me awake at night.

A lot has changed in the last 12 months since my last visit to Darley. The usual restricted access, reduced spectator numbers and pre-booking tickets are in force as it is at all race tracks. 

The most significant change has been the improvements to the spectator viewing areas at the Hairpin. Some trees have been removed and the raised banking has been reworked all the way round with car parking overlooking the track.

For the spectator photographer this gave the three of us that were out capturing the action some different view points and angles.

The only down side was the grass hadn't had a chance to grow and it was raining, so the quite steep slopes were a little on the slippery side.

This is where the mono pod users have an advantage, using it as a walking stick to help them get down slippery surfaces. No one wants to arrive trackside sliding in on their arse covered in mud! 

The rain that fell for most of the morning didn’t help, but I had been pre-warned about the improvements so was wearing stout footwear.

With a few plastic bags in the boot to pop my muddy boots into at the end of the day, and a fresh pair of shoes to drive home in, there was no drama. 

Last year we parked next to the paddock and walked around the circuit, but this year like all the other tracks in the UK the paddock is out of bounds to the paying public.

We opted for driving up to the hairpin and spent the morning capturing the action there.

To be fair you could spend all day at this location and quite a few did, remaining in the warmth of the car, you still get a good view of the track.

However, for us to get the shots we wanted we had to brave the weather. There is a low tyre wall and no catch fencing,  except for the apex of the bend, so it is a great location for the spectator photographer.

The fencing is of a type you would find at flat tracking oval tracks like Scunthorpe and Kings Lynn, the thick square metal type.

As it has been there for some time it has weathered and is darker than the silver diamond shaped fencing you will find at most of the MSV tracks like Donington.

As you can see from these shots, there are no problems "seeing" through the fence with the camera if you have the right settings.

A long focal length, the widest f-stop and up close to the fence will make it disappear. 

The weathering on the fence helps; a bright silver safety fence will tone down your final image making it look a little grey. Basically, you are putting a rubbish neutral density filter in front of your lens reducing the light.

Top tip, dial in a little extra exposure compensation to increase the shadow detail if you need it. 

Or, in post processing, adjust your curves, levels or histogram to move the exposure to the right, thus increasing / compressing your contrast.

As illustrated in this unedited example. A bright reflective silver coloured fence will be much worse than this.

The rest of the hairpin complex gives you loads of angles to shoot from. Atop the banking, to up close to the riders, and standing down on the straight shooting back into the corner, you will have loads of great shots to review later.

One of the topics we covered was doing a Darley Moor Photographic Track Guide to complement all the others we have done. We will do one over the winter when the season is over, if you can call it this strange year a season.

But in short, the track is of a triangular configuration. Stand on one of the corners, that’s where the action is! 

And that’s where we headed next, the only other corner we could access, which is Park, the first corner you see when arriving at the track.

The final corner paddock, and as you can probably work out yourself, is next to the paddock, and was out of bounds at this meeting for spectators  - maybe next year. 

The weather picked up in the afternoon with the light just to our right, which helped raise our sprits and give us a second wind of inspiration.

This resulted in a few arty shots which were not too bad, but I did concentrate on the racing so didn’t take too many of this type. Maybe next time, as they came out ok.

I'm a fan of all forms of motorsport but I do like the classic bikes and make a point of getting to events where these machine of a bygone era get out on track. It was good to see at Darley that they were running Classic and Forgotten Era races.

I still to this day struggle with the fact that machines I owned are now classics. It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that I was nipping down the chip shop on my BSA.

To be clear, when I rode a BSA it was only just about classic then and came without the premium price tag that these motorcycles demand these days. Back then it was the cheapest way into biking, and as a teenager I was skint. 

With 30 motorcycles of different classes all racing together there was plenty of classic metal to look at.

Winning the races we watched on the Saturday, Jamie O'Brien on his Yamaha 250 managed to stay in front of  #99 David Tetley on the G50 499cc Matchless. #14 Dean STIMPSON on the New Heath 350 came in third to complete the podium in the Classic and Forgotten Era Race. 

There were 11 different races run twice, so plenty of opportunity to get some good shots. Out on track we had everything from lightweight V and twin cylinder machines to the open classes like the All-comers for bikes up to 1300cc! 

In the Allcomers, it was Harry Jackson who would take the win on Saturday on his ZX6R Kawasaki, also picking up the fastest lap at 1:02.77 in the process.

Harry has been busy this year even with the CV19 restrictions. He has competed in events as diverse as the Barry Sheen Classic at Oliver's Mount to BSB SuperStock at Oulton Park .

The sidecars were out in two race classes. The Formula 600 was won by the crew of #45 Harry Payne and Brad Stockton racing a 600 Yamaha. The open sidecars it was #128  Simon Holden and Jorden Forrest who took the podium top spot.

We took in a few more races at Park corner. The raised banked spectator area gives you great views of the track and is also conveniently located near the exit.

Before I left I had spotted an apple tree on the access road that was covered in fruit.

Being a little peckish by now, I employed my full on Ray Mears foraging skills, plucking the best looking fruit for the homeward journey. Lets just say I'm not about to get scurvy any time soon. 

Photographic Post Script.

To summarise if you are an aspiring motorsports photographer or just an enthusiast with a hobby, Darley is a great location for you to pick up some good shots for your portfolio. 

The lack of intrusive safety fencing and the great spectator view points are a welcome bonus compared to some tracks. I did use a superzoom for all of these shots but a shorter lens can be used as you are quite close to the action.

One thing I will take away from this meeting was the amount of ladies out on track.

Motorcycle racing has always been a male dominated sport so it was great to see the ladies out in force and I will leave you with a selection of images of #163 Angela Cragg on the Norton Domin 500, #4 Scarlett Robinson on the Kawasaki 400, #81 Holly Reeves on a Kawasaki 300 and #66 Katie Hand on her Yamaha 300.

# 16 Juniors and Seniors Race 3 winner Jamie Hanks-Elliott on a Kawasaki 400. We will see how Jamie gets on with the mountain while competing in the Thundersports races at Cadwell this coming weekend !

As always thanks to David Harbey and Rob. You can see more of Davids images by following the links below.

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