King Richard The Lionheart Triumphs

“I HAD TO WIN THAT RACE; NOTHING else could do,” said a mentally drained Richard Tarling, having snatched the Historic Formula Ford crown in his Jamun from beneath the noses of Merlyn men Michael O’Brien and Callum Grant in a classic Silverstone slipstream finish. It had been an emotional rollercoaster of an HSCC Championship Finals meeting in which the fortunes of all three waxed and waned over the double-header, and two dropped scores became the key arbiters.

- Marcus Pye

The three title aspirants, plus Cameron Jackson (Lola), each led one of the first four laps of Sunday’s frenetic opener, in which they jockeyed for position relentlessly. Tarling, winner of five of the previous six rounds, believed he had engineered another 25-pointer when Jackson, lunging on the outside, tagged him at Brook lands on the last lap. Having been shuffled as low as sixth, poleman O’Brien gratefully shot past to grab his second round victory, although since he had scored in every round it would add but 11 points to his total.

Grant finished second ahead of Ed Thurston and Jackson. Tarling somehow salvaged sixth, which left him 16 points behind O’Brien – 220 to 236, having discarded Croft’s zero – with eight to drop in the decider as opposed to O’Brien’s 14. Grant, also on 220 and carrying forward eight to discount, was still in the hunt too if O’Brien faltered.

With a glorious rainbow over Copse but no rain, Tarling, O’Brien – apparently cruising confidently to the title – and Jackson exchanged the lead as Grant was frustrated by young Thurston’s apparent unwillingness to work together to catch them. There was to be no pot of gold at the end of the arc for O’Brien and Speed sport, however, for agonisingly a left-rear puncture torpedoed him. Once lower than fourth he could add no points and so he pitted disconsolately, leaving Tarling and Jackson to duke it out.

“The tow down the Wellington Straight was always going to be the decider,” said Tarling. “It was quite funny how Cameron wasn’t keen to lead out of Becketts on the final lap – and Callum was closing.” Tarling threw caution to the wind to outfox Jackson as Brook lands presented his final opportunity, a seventh campaign win tipping the balance in his favour by a point. Second would have left him four shy of O’Brien…