Mark,

Were you at Darley Moor for the Stars meeting? I couldn't remember your surname, so wasn't sure if you were in the listing. A mate of a mate won Best Newcomer (Scott something) and we went to watch him.

Aye was down there for my sins. bloody stars of fecking darley. i have to wait till half two before my first race and halfway round the second lap it starts pissing it down http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

was a bit of a different format to the usual with no heats and finals just a one of 15 lapper.
the lightweght race was more like of a war of attrition than a race, especially when you've got guys chucking it down the road 200 yards into the sighting lap!!!
dunno where you were stood and if you can explain what happened to me, by the time i got to the chicane this fool was chasing his bike down the road http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
then we got red flagged again about three laps in. got a fairly rotten start again but had a fairly decent battle all the way round with that lad i share a space in the paddock with. was all going pretty well till i managed to find my old nemesis the 'false neutral' on the penultimate lap going into paddock corner. so my mate ian got past me but with gritted teeth i shot after him again, unfortunatly a little to hot into park corner and managed to put some more battle scars on my leathers. by a strange quirk of fate someone else had a bigger off than i did and had the race red flagged so i was credited an 8th while i was pushing a worse for wear bike back to the pits!
cos of that spill i didn't manage to get out in the newcomers unfortunatly.

A mate of yours and you don't even know his second name, shocking!!! Actually got chatting to Scott SMYTH http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif on sunday. he's a decent lad and a quick rider,when he can stay on the thing http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif. small world innit, where abouts do you know him from? if you see him soon tell him his tip for the chicane worked a treat!

Fucking hell, that was your race? What a fucking nightmare, we were stood at the entrance to the chicane.

Bearing in mind we were very cold, very wet and were disappointed by the lack of any actual "stars" and had to hang around to watch Scotts race (the one after yours) and then the carnage started:

Sighting lap: everyone goes through the chicane, suddenly one bike just drops, looks like there was oil down that the marshalls missed. In fact, they didn't even see him go down, we had to shout them and tell them there was a guy lying in the track http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif

So after, about half an hour, they finish clearing up the mess (I think they stopped for a cup of tea halfway through) they let you restart, then after a few laps one guy does an amazing highside, the fucker bounced about 4 feet in the air after his first landing, cue another half hour wait while the ambulance scooped him up (hope he was OK).

My mate Jim (1999 Darley Moor 250GP Champion http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif ) was gutted, he had an identical accident there in '98 and as he was lying on the tarmac, they asked him to crawl over the banking (in front of the usual large Paddock Corner crowd) so they didn't have to stop the race http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Scott is Jim's mate, they both work at Aerospace together, I've only met him a couple of times and I'm shit with names http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I wouldn't follow his chiane tips, he used the green stuff a few times http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

There were loads of red flags throughout the day, the funniest was the classic race, some guy lost it going into the hairpin, but kept it upright although buried in the gravel trap, so they red flagged it while they moved his bike (he's checking it over, taking his time while the crowd are shouting at him to get on with it), they restart and then on lap 2 he does the exact same thing again! Muppet!

Yeah, think they could do with shelling out for a couple of flags at that chicane. Came through it a couple of times with marshals running around waving their arms at me. Left arm waving, whats that, a yellow flag, both arms waving is a red?????

Was number 4 this meeting. For the ‘red flag race’ I was being hounded by the number 5 kawasaki for most of the time.
Was a few crashes in the 400 race as well. Came out of paddock corner on the last lap to find chris spooner sat in the middle of the track! Think everyone had probably just gone “it’s the last race of the season, fuck it, win or crash trying” and most of em did!

Have had a fairly decent season overall and now have many, many plans for over the winter to make the bike quicker for next year. My girlfriends gonna be well impressed J