Harvey times it to perfection to brilliantly triumph in race of the year!
Tom Harvey had vowed to bring home the winner’s trophy prior to heading cross-Channel to Genk in Belgium for the latest meeting in the Lewis Hamilton and Bernie Ecclestone-backed Formula Kart Stars (FKS) Championship – but what the highly-rated young South Wales speed demon had likely not envisaged was triumphing in an astounding race that was widely-rated as the best in recent memory.
Tom set off on his European adventure – only the second time he had ever competed at Genk – with his tail up off the back of having extended his lead in the title standings in fellow national series Super 1, and bidding to similarly reclaim the advantage in FKS.
“The aim was to keep that kind of form going and catch my team-mate in the championship,” mused the Bonvilston-based hotshot. “I really like Genk – I think it’s an amazing circuit! It’s nothing like the tracks in Britain, which are far more tight-and-twisty; at Genk you have to really pull on the steering to stick to the racing line, and keep the power down all the time. It’s all about throttle and braking. You have to get into the zone and into the groove properly before you get it right.”
Tom got ‘into the zone’ very fast indeed during practice, proving to be ‘on it’ as soon as the third session – “I got back into the rhythm of the track and the lines, and after that I was really quick and carried that over to Saturday,” he confirmed – and third in his group in qualifying was a strong start, a mere three tenths of a second shy of the outright pace amongst the 39-strong MSA British Cadet class field, the very crème de la crème of homegrown talent at that level.
Unfortunately, due to the track being slower when his group ventured out, the 12-year-old would begin both of his heat races just ninth – but then as he has proven time-and-again this season already, that is seldom a problem.
The opening encounter swiftly developed into a three-horse race as the leading trio sagely pushed each other away from the chasing pack behind, indulging in some superb racing that was only resolved on the very last lap when Tom nicked the lead into the final corner. In evidence of the closeness of their competition, all three set identical fastest lap times and were covered by a mere two tenths of a second at the chequered flag, with fourth place some five seconds further in arrears.
The second heat would be just as fraught, but this time the Fusion Motorsports star prevailed comparatively comfortably after his two pursuers collided on the last lap – allowing him to subsequently ‘chill’ and just concentrate on bringing his kart home to secure pole position for the all-important final.
“I had expected to finish in the top three, but not necessarily to win both heats,” he confessed. “I knew I had the pace, but there were a lot of other quick drivers out there too. In the final I was expecting a three-kart getaway to be honest, and for me, Nathan Aston and Connor Jupp to push away from the rest of the field like we had done in the heats. That didn’t happen.
“At one point there were 18 of us all battling over the win, and I dropped down to tenth towards the end but had worked my way back through to seventh by the time we went into the last lap. I then just shut my eyes and hoped for the best! I pulled off a manoeuvre into the first corner to take fifth, and into the chicane I zipped up the inside of three more to move into second. After that I overtook my team-mate to grab the lead, and then just defended to the end.
“I was always confident I’d be able to make up the places on the last lap like that – I didn’t know how I was going to do it or where I was going to do it, but I just knew I was going to do it! On the run to the flag I didn’t know where anyone else around me actually was, so I just kept my head down and pushed for the line and hoped I would cross it first, which I did. I was really pleased and just celebrated like mad when I got back to the pits and up on the podium! It was my first national win in nearly two months and I just thought, ‘I’m back!’”
Few observers were in any doubt afterwards that what they had witnessed was something very special indeed, with 18 karts circulating virtually as one and trading places into practically every corner. Whilst any one of the duellists could have won, it was Tom who timed his attack to absolute perfection to clinch victory.
Having added another faultless 100 points to his tally and with his chief competitor for the laurels all the way down in eighth place, the result also moved the Cowbridge High School pupil back to the top of the table – and it is just such performances that champions are ultimately made of.
After winning Sunday’s first heat by two hundredths of a second – or ‘less than the blink of an eye’, as he reasons – and taking a solid sixth in a ‘waterlogged’ second heat in which he admitted ‘it wasn’t just wet, it was like a monsoon’, from third on the grid for the final, Tom had high hopes of making it cause for a double celebration having proven himself to be equally rapid come rain or shine. Even just a top ten finish would have been enough to keep him at the head of the standings, but as he reflected, ‘it wasn’t meant to be’.
A knock at the rear from a rival on only the opening lap of the race was enough to dislodge the Vale of Glamorgan ace’s chain, leading to instant retirement and leaving him 15 points adrift of the championship lead, albeit still comfortably in second place and determined to fight back next time out at Three Sisters near Wigan, a challenging, fast-and-flowing circuit at which he has competed from a young age and that he effusively describes as ‘everything a racing driver enjoys’.
Acknowledging that the DNF has ‘made life just that little bit harder’, the coveted British crown is still eminently within Tom’s reach, and he will approach Wigan with a magnificent 50 per cent winning record in FKS, having now incredibly notched up eight national triumphs in 2010 from just 14 finals and at four different tracks. It is very much game on!
