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          All material on this website Stephen Owens and Mallett Racing 2008 |
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July 5th Darren received a phone call late Thursday night and was asked to ride as Birmingham needed a rider due to their terrible luck with injuries already this season! Darren was delighted to ride which was shown by his performance scoring 6 points from a team total of 24! By the end of heat 15 Darren was joint top scorer for Birmingham on the night with Lee Smart and Kyle Legault both also scoring 6. Dale Allitt went along in support of Darren Mallett and said "I was mightily impressed with Darren last night and thought he was very fast towards the end of the meeting. Another lap in heat 14 I think he would of passed John Oliver! It's good to see him racing at this level because I know he can do it"! Darren will next be in action this Sunday when the Scunthorpe Saints visit the Norfolk Arena for the first time. June 29th Darren rode at number 4 for this meeting and quickly said that he doesn't like being out in heat 1! Boston won the meeting comfortable 62-25 with Darren scoring 7 including an exclusion! Darren had 2 race wins, a third and that exclusion. One of his race wins was his quickest time of the season in 61.08 which shows that his points do not show his actual performance on the night. Darren will next be in action this Friday when he will take to the Norfolk Arena in a second half appearence! June 15th This years meeting is slightly different to the normal individual meeting as it is a team event this time round. A young "Roos" team will take on a Young Lions Team! Darren has been asked to represent the Young Lions team. Darren is expected to ride at the number 2 or 4 position! Other Riders in appearance for this meeting are... Tai Woffinden, Mitchell Davey, Tai Proctor, John Oliver, Kozza Smith, Sam Martin, Simon Lambert, Darren Rolph, Josh Auty, Joe Haines, Lewis Bridger and James Brundle! June 8th Darren rode at the number 4 position for this meeting instead of his start of season number 2 position. "Id rather ride outside number 1 and 2 simply because I like to watch the first heat to see what the track is like! Boston don't normally have a practice parade which means I normally go into heat 1 not knowing what the track is really like"! Darren followed team mate Jamie Smith home in heat 3 beating the opposition by some way. Heat 5 Darren shot out of the gate and looked for his team mate every lap. He was followed home by Jamie Smith. Darren made a good gate but Aaron Summers dived up the inside going into bend 3 of lap 1. Heat 14 was perhaps one of the best races of the night with Darren passing Jade Mudgway on lap 1. Only to be repassed on lap 3. Darren tried until the finish line but just couldn't find the speed around the outside. Darren was also asked to go out in heat 15 in the riders nominated race. He and team mate Simon Lambert made a great gate and were winning going into and coming out of the first and second bend however both opposition riders dived hard up the inside of Darren going into bend three and four pushing Darren wide. Darren chased hard and tried to use the outside but the track was too slick and there was nothing there to help increase his speed! Darren finished on 8+2 which is still an improvement on his form as the start of season. Darren will next be in action this Saturday when he will travel North to Teesside in the return leg of the Knock Out Cup Semi Final. June 6th Heat 3, Darren made the gate but was pushed wide on the first bend. The track was that bad he could not make a pass because when he moved off the inside line, he lost ground. His second ride was a bit better making the gate but being pushed a little wide coming out of bend 2. He managed to hold on to second until lap 3 when Paul Starke ran into the back of him and caused him to fall on the next bend. Darren was harshly excluded for this. His bike suffered bent handlebars and Darren continued on in the meeting with a badly bruised leg! In his third and fourth ride Darren made good starts but just couldn't cope with the bad track and finished both races in third place scoring a poor total of just 2 points. Darren will next be in action this Sunday at the Norfolk Arena for Boston where he hoped to put this meeting firmly behind him. June 1st Heat 1 Darren shot out of the start and won with ease in a time of 60.6. In his second outing Darren missed the start and couldn't get passed Irwin or Cook however was chasing them both very hard for four laps. Darren again made a good start in his third race beating their second highest scored of the evening with ease! He finished in a time of 62.0. Heat 10 see Darren given the Rider Replacement ride and he did not disappoint his team manager by following Matt Wright home for a maximum heat advantage 5-1. In Darren's final scheduled race of the day he made a good start but but was passed coming out of the second bend. Darren tried to repass on the third and fourth but just couldn't get round the outside. May 25th Darren will next be in action this coming Wednesday where he will have yet another second half in a bid to keep him race fit. His next meeting is Sunday where he will take the trip to Sittingbourne! May 22nd Darren's team manager and Boston promoter Dale Allitt said "Darren again got off to a slow start this season and he knows that. We had a chat and I explained to him that there was no pressure on him at the minute, just keep plugging away and it will come like last season. He rode well Wednesday night and I think we all felt sorry for him after his second race as he was so close to winning it". Darren will next be in action at the High Edge Raceway in Buxton where he will take part in the return leg of the Conference League Trophy. May 13th This shows that Darren does want to ride and we all hopes that in his next home meetings he can be achieving what we all expect of him! May 12th Heat one didn't got to plan for Darren as he didn't make the gate and found himself being in last place by lap 2. Darren was chasing hard after three laps and finished in third place all beit the opposing rider did seem to have bike troubles. Darren again didn't make the start in heat 6 however was looking comfortable in third place chasing Jack Roberts while team mate Simon Lambert was in the distance. Darren then came out in heat 8 knowing that he needed to win this one to help his team build up a big lead to take to Buxton in a fortnights time. He shot out of the gate and left his rivals, won the race by over 20 metres. When he came back into the pits after this race, it was noticed that there was something wrong. The exhaust had snapped off where it comes down from the engine which would lead to a little loss of power. With everyone chipping in around the pits the problem was sorted in time for his next race just two heats later in heat 10. Darren made a good start however going into bend three just was pushed a little wide by the Buxton team captain Ben Taylor which left him in third place. Darren finished on 6 points which is his highest so far this season. He will next be in action at Kings Lynn this coming Wednesday taking part in a second half to keep his race fitness up and also to get a better set up for his bike! April 28th Darren has not seen much competitive action yet this season as half of his scheduled fixtures have been called off. Without this fixture at Weymouth, he would of been waiting nearly a month for a competitive meeting, which is why he snapped up the offer to ride, all beit, all the way down in Weymouth. Darren finished on a total of 5 points. Getting off to a terrible start in heat one missing the gate completely. He said "my bike was pulling dragging forward at the start line and instead of concentration on what they tapes were doing, I was worrying about holding my bike back to avoid the tapes!" Darren finished in last place in this race however knew what needed to be changed for his next outing. After that first race, Darren got two thirds all beit five ones to the opposition team. And in his final heat, heat 14, Darren made a awesome start off gate four and blasted home for his first win of the night, also in one of the quickest times too. Darren will next be in action on Friday 9th May at Plymouth. April 20th Darren will next be in competitive action on Saturday 26th April. He has been asked to take part in a challenge meeting at Weymouth. More details on this event will be put on here soon. April 8th In heat one Darren was comfortably in second place to team mate Simon Lambert where an engine failure see him retire from that race. In Darren's second outing of the night he was pushed wide by team mate Simon Lambert and had to lay bike down as was getting pretty close to the fence! In his third ride Darren made a few changes to his bike which obviously helped as he won the race by several bike lengths. And in his fourth ride he team rode with Simon Lambert to take a paid win. This finished his night on a high and with a paid 6 score. Darren's first two meetings have not gone to plan as when he was at Scunthorpe he deserved more than he scored, plus tonight, had bad luck only finishing two of his four rides! Darren will next be in action on Sunday 20th April when the Rye House Raiders visit the Norfolk Arena. April 2nd As the day went on Darren got faster and faster trying different lines. Darren said "I felt comfortable on my bike today. I have been practising over the winter and have also had a few skids at some Kings Lynn second halves". Darren will next be in action this coming Wednesday the 9th of April when the Boston Barracudas hit the track in their first meeting against conference league rivals the newly named Redcar Cubs. Darren would like to thank everyone who has helped him make the track in 2008. Without these people he would not be able to take part in this sport! Thanks March 25th HEAT 1: Darren took to the track for heat one and made a blinding start only to be stopped after a fall on the first bend by Benji Compton, should of been excluded but was left back in. Darren again in the re-run made another lightening quick start only again to be stopped because of a fall from Benji Compton who was then excluded. Anderson ran into fence on slow down lap and didn't take his part in the third re-run and was replaced by Richardson. Richardson made a good gate and pushed Darren wide on 2nd bend which left Darren in second place. He chased hard and only missed him on the line! HEAT 5: Darren made a reasonable gate alongside Bekker, however Bekker edged ahead coming out of bend 4. Darren tried the outside but there was just nothing there and lost ground. He finished in second place. HEAT 8: Darren was off gate four in this one and was pushed very wide by Gaz Irving. This put him in forth place and with his team mate not taking notice of Darren being faster behind him, took him a lap to get past him. Darren then rode very hard only missing Irving on the line by less than a bikes length! HEAT 11: Darren made a reasonable start in second place and for a lap seemed to be faster than Richardson in first place. However going into the third lap Darrens bike suddenly lost its power. Once the race had finished it was found out that the Primary Chain had snapped due to bolt on the side of the engine coming loose! Overall Darren rode very well and his efforts were not shown in how many points he scored. Darren will next be in action in some second half races this coming Wednesday at Kings Lynn. January 30th 2008:
December 17 2007: |
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