TAR LING TAKES A BRACE BY SMALLEST MARGIN
Wheel-to-wheel racing made the Historic Formula Ford 1600 action the highlight of the HSCC’S visit to Snetterton, with the second race decided in favour of Richard Tarling by a thousandth of a second.
It was wholly appropriate that two more epic FF counters involved the three drivers slugging it out for the endof-season title as the central players.
Along with Brands Hatch winner Cameron Jackson, who was back out in a Neil Fowler Lola T200, Tarling (Jamun T2) and Merlyn Mk20 racers Michael O’brien and Callum Grant raced as hard and as fair as ever to deliver two cracking races.
The opener was all about Tarling and Grant in the early laps but once he’d wriggled ahead of Jackson, O’brien was able to tow up into contention. Sure enough, O’brien got right into the thick of the lead contest and executed a demon move to lead over the line on what he thought was the final lap. However on the true final lap, Tarling braved it out to retake the lead as they went three wide into Riches and still led out of Murray’s as Grant tried to work the tow on the sprint to the line and only missed it by 13-thousandths.
The second race was just as glorious but Grant was hugely frustrated to lose his place at the top table when a coil problem left him struggling to get more than 6000rpm. He battled home fourth as the other three traded places at every possible opportunity.
It all came down to the final lap and O’brien looked to have judged it perfectly to lead out of the final corner. But Tarling wasn’t finished yet and dived out of the tow on the dash to the line and, in a photo finish, got the nod by the smallest of gaps.
“One word: gutted,” said O’brien. “I got a good exit out of the last corner but Richard towed up alongside.” For Tarling, a second win was reward for a tenacious performance. “It’s been a big day,” he said of the season-long contest.
The Formula Ford 2000s were not about to be overshadowed by their 1600cc forebears and a fantastic 32-car grid had battles all down the order. On a day when all six double-headers provided double winners, it was URS Classic racer Marc Mercer who swept away to an impressive brace of wins. Jon Finch led the chase as Davy Walton claimed a deserved debut Historic FF2000 win in the opener.
In the second race, only Mercer was far enough ahead to stay out of reach of the flying Ian Pearson, up from dead last on the grid for the opening race.
Four of the day’s wins went to cars from the design genius of Arthur Mallock. Will Mitcham was never going to be seen for dust in the U2 Mk2 in the front-engined Formula Juniors and the local ace took his dad’s car to two easy wins. In his wake, Alex Morton (Condor SII) and Nick Taylor (Elva 100) had two wonderful contests and Morton took them both: the later race by just 17-hundredths of a second.
Mark Charteris moved the Mallock story forward by 20 years with two more Classic Clubmans wins to underscore his 2017 title. Spencer Mccarthy and Alan Cook emerged best of the chasing pack.
The anticipated contest between Andrew Hibberd and Jon Milicevic in Historic F3 was over before it started when Milicevic’s engine tightened up on the first lap of qualifying. Hibberd was left to his own devices at the head of both races but there was some good racing in his wake. Peter Needham (March 703) saw off Michael Scott (Brabham BT28) in both races despite a concerted effort from the Devonian as Needham took his best result to date in his March 703. “It was seven hours from Exeter on Friday but it was worth it to get on the podium,” said Scott. “I had a great battle with Peter, but he’s younger than me!”
Gaius Ghinn moved very close to the Classic Formula 3 Championship crown with a brace of wins in his Ralt RT3, his title bid boosted by the absence of nearest rival, Richard Trott. In both races Pat Gormley gave chase in his ex-patrick Neve Safir and ensured that Ghinn never relaxed. The total margin after half an hour of racing was less than three seconds. Julian Stokes (Tecno) was the best of the concurrent Classic Racing Car contenders.