Poet finishes regularly ahead of racing driver (8)
I believe the answer is:
hamilton
'racing driver' is the definition.
(Lewis Hamilton)
'poet finishes regularly ahead' is the wordplay.
'poet' becomes 'milton' (John Milton**).
'finishes' says to put letters next to each other (the solver is told which letters finish the word).
'regularly' means one should take alternating letters (regularly take one letter, leave next etc.).
The alternate letters of 'ahead' are 'ha'.
'milton' after 'ha' is 'HAMILTON'.
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for hamilton that I've seen before include "Emma --, Nelson's lover" , "Capital of Bermuda -- musical (opened in New York, 2015)" , "F1 champion" , "Port in Canada - capital of Bermuda" , "Emma -, Nelson's mistress" .)