The Darley Day A Complete Success For NSWSKC

press release

Sunday October 18 will live long in the memory of everyone who attend the first annual Darley Day meeting held by the New South Wales Speedway Kart Club at the Nepean Motorsport complex.

From an idea born from the executive committee to hold an event to honor the Darley family for their contribution to the foundation building of the club and to celebrate the life of the late Scott Darley, the event brought speedway identities together on a beautiful sunny Sunday in Castlereagh just west of Sydney.

Above: Ian Loudoun, a close mate of Scott's and winner of the Stars group

Along with a list of nine current speedway drivers and one legend, Dick Briton who all competed in the speedway stars class on the day.

Such was the respect Scott held in the speedway community seen scattered amongst the crowd of over 500 people were people like Sprintcar drivers Ian Madsen, Danny Reidy, Mitchell Dumesny, crew chiefs Nick Speed and Mouse Green, the new co-owners of TPCR Dennis Loudoun, Rod Bowen and Brett Morris and Australian speedways first lady of speed Melinda Dumesny just to name a few.

Along with the speedway stars that competed on the day there was also a special class given permission from the club to compete consisting of family and friends of Scott. This group was headed by Scott’s brother Luke and his sisters Kate and Jayne with the balance of the field being made up of life long friends, crew and other relatives.

Above: Luke Darley, Scott's brother and winner of the Family class

Call it fate or coincidence but the number in this group totaled 13, the number Scott carried on most of his race cars.

Along with these 23 drivers, 80 other club members and visiting AKA drivers entered the event giving a total of 103 entries on track which was far above what was expected when planning the day.

Throughout the day club spirit and sportsmanship was on display as members lent karts and equipment to the guests so they could be part of this day.

All 10 classes on the day were given 2 heats of 13 laps and a final of 19 laps in order to gain as many points as possible as they raced for the honor the be the first person to hold the “Scott Darley Achievement of Excellence” award .

Results from the racing were;

Midgets – 1st Andrew Beattie, 2nd Luke Sayre, 3rd Kaidon Brown
Feature winner –Luke Sayre
Rookies – 1st Daniel Sayre, 2nd Corey Foyle, 3rd Rhys Tuohy
Feature winner – Daniel Sayre
Juniors - 1st Kyle Pollock, 2nd Lindsay Jones, 3rd Michael Saller
Feature winner –Nathan Camilleri
Clubman Light- 1st Tim Loveday, 2nd David Boyd, 3rd Jade Pollock
Feature winner – Greg Coghlan
Clubman heavy – 1st Joel Rhind, 2nd Daniel Selmes, 3rd David Cochran
Feature winner – Tim Baker
KT Modified Light – 1st Brent Coghlan, 2nd Danny Stewart, 3rd Alana Baines Feature winner – Wayne Baines
KT Modified Heavy – 1st Cameron Coghlan, 2nd James Robertson
Feature winner – John Watton
Formula 100 – 1st Johnathon Bright, 2nd Sean Mayo, 3rd Glen Saville
Feature winner – Johnathon Bright

Our speedway stars class raced hard all day and showed why they are the leading drivers in their fields.

Heat 1 was taken out by Speedcar star Mark Brown as he led home Brett Morris and Marty Perovich. Heat 2 would see Ian Loudoun win and in the minors it was Mark Brown 2nd and Marty Perovich 3rd. The final was a great race with the field swapping places in the early laps before settling down over the second half of the race. Leading the field home was former TPCR track champion Ian Loudoun, in second place Adrian Maher and in 3rd place was Steve Caunt.

During the day most of the drivers were interviewed and paid great respect to just how good the speedway karts are for refining skills of drivers. Many of the current stars seen at TPCR on a Saturday night across all classes have had a start in speedway karts with the NSWSKC.

With out a doubt the most interest was in the group of family and friends that came to have some fun and to celebrate Scott’s life.

Heat 1 was an interesting as they all tried to find a balance of throttle control and speed however after 13 laps close family friend Stuart McCarthy  would finish 1st and was followed home by Scott’s brother Luke Darley and one of Scott’s crew guys Gavin Byron.

Heat 2 rolled out and by now they all knew what to expect and the racing showed as places continued to change throughout the race. This time at race end Gavin Byron would lead home Luke Darley and Paul Freeman.

During the lunch break track prep was completed giving the family group a perfect track to race their final on. This race would turn out to be the race of the day with no les than six lead changes and with three and four wide racing going on in the pack the crowd was on their feet as the laps wound down and the field bunched up at the front.

When the final flag fell it would be a husband and wife 1, 2 with Paul Freeman leading home Kate and in what was tremendous finish Luke Darley would come home 3rd after starting 13th.
The final placing on the day on points were:

1st Luke Darley, 2nd Gavin Byron, 3rd Stewart McCarthy.

Once all the trophies were awarded there was one more to present. The “Scott Darley Achievement of Excellence” award. This trophy is now one of the clubs most sort after and to present the award was the entire Darley family. In a show of strength and dignity Rhonda Darley delivered a speech which had the large crowd silent and hanging on every word. At the end of the speech she announced Brent Coghlan as the inaugural winner of the award to top off a great day.

The day had so many stories and people will no doubt talk about this day for some time to come and already the anticipation for next year is growing.

The day had perfect great weather, a fantastic track, huge crowd and throughout the day there was a perfect balance of Happiness and sadness, tears and laughter, but most of all a sea of smiles on everyone’s faces.

As a side note the club involved Scott charity of choice Cure Our Kids and over the event was able to raise over $7000 to this great organisation to pass on to kids in need.

The club could not have asked for a better result and look forward to future events.

However events like this do not happen without support and to all the Darley Family, individuals, organisation, stars, club member’s, guests and volunteers involved in the day thank you for your support and bring on 2010.

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