Ford pips High Peak rival to racing title

Ford, who went into the race with a 24-point lead over Moore, ended the season on 93 points with Moore runner-up on 81 and Samuel Grief well adrift in third on 12.

Two classes, Formula Darley and the CB500 Championships had just a two point gap at the head of the table.

Martin Robbins (Worcester) had the advantage over Tony Griffiths (Pontypridd) in Formula Darley and Andy Whale (Birmingham) heading the CB500 class over Daz Bellworthy (Derby).

Both classes were out on track together along with the Lightweight class.

Griffiths was the faster starter and led for the opening couple of laps, with Ford second after the first lap, Moore having the slower start and finishing lap one down in fifth.

By the end of lap two he was up to second and then took the lead on lap three and was able to open a victory margin of almost 30 seconds.

After being second on the opening lap Ford couldn’t match Moore’s speed and was only able to get pass Griffiths and hold onto second place, but this was all that was needed for the Lightweight Championship.

Robbins had the slowest start and finished the first lap down in sixth place overall, but could

not manage to close in on Griffiths, after battling it out with CB500 rivals Bellworthy and

Whale throughout the race and making a mistake on the final lap, dropping him down to sixth and losing out to his rival for Formula Darley Championship honours.

Bellworthy was able to get ahead of the trio towards the final stages, opening out a two second advantage, over Whale, at the flag and giving Bellworthy the CB500 title.

It was a superb final day at the Darley Moor Motorsport Centre, near Ashbourne, with last year’s Stars at Darley top three attending, 13 champions crowned, and excellent weather providing great racing.