It was the final race of the World SSP season for Tarran at the Circuito de Jerez, Spain. It was the last chance for Tarran to earn some much-needed World Championship points to get as high on the standings as possible, and to try and break into the top 15 to bring the season and also his birthday weekend to a close.
After a slow start on Friday’s practice day due to wet track conditions, Tarran hit the ground running on Saturday morning’s qualifying session, setting some good times, with the best being 1’44.603. This meant Tarran qualified in 24th for the weekend’s races.
Tarran made a fast start in the first race, gaining 2 positions almost immediately and was able to get into a good rhythm early on. Tarran was able to reach 17th by lap 6 and battled hard with those around him and managed to finish the race in 19th.
There was a revised grid for race 2 which saw Tarran start up in 20th, however, the race only lasted 4 laps before a red flag halted proceedings due to safety conditions. The race was then restarted a short time later but was reduced to only a 7-lap race. Once again, Tarran made a strong start gaining 3 positions quickly and was close to the points zone. Tarran reached 14th with only 3 laps left and managed to see it out for a final 2 Championship points.
This is what Tarran had to say: “It was a nice birthday bonus to score more world championship points with 14th place in my final WSS race of the season. Better late than never but I thoroughly enjoyed riding my much-improved Petronas MIE Honda CBR 600 over the weekend at Jerez. The flowing track helped but my crew once again delivered on fine tuning things over the weekend. The final race turned into a seven-lap sprint, so I was all in to grab some points”.
Tarran then said: “I’m excited to now spend a few days testing the Honda CBR 1000 Fireblade here so hope the weather stays dry and sunny! There’s no definite plan in place for 2024 but I should be able to finalise my plans very soon. It was nice to have TT legend Peter Hickman on the grid and a special thanks goes to my MIE Team boss Midori Moriwaki for this season and the birthday cake! My appreciation as always to my loyal team and sponsors”.
Tarran finished the season 18th in the overall standings, scoring 42 points, 25 of which came with his stunning win in the Czech Republic.
A huge well done to Tarran for his debut season on the World SSP and we’re excited to see what next season brings.