2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
Things seemed to get back to normal for Eddie at Lydd as, in his own words, he was used as target practice again.
His day got off to a good start when he made a cracking start from 12th on the grid in heat one to move up to seventh at turn 1. He then picked off two more drivers before settling down behind the front runners to finish a promising 5th.
Heat two started the downward turn for the day. Starting 3rd, he lost two places on the opeing lap but was running a comfortable 5th until kart 12 pulled an over ambitious move into the last turn, pushing Eddie into the gravel. Fortunately, Eddie managed to maintain control and clawed his way back up to 9th. Eddie was furious with the incident.
"It was an absolutely pathetic manoeuvre. There was absolutely no room and he wasn't even alongside me. Typically, the stewards turned a blind eye to it and he didn't get penalised. The only consolation was that he finished nearly dead last!"
Heat 3 was a complete disaster. Needing to finish in the top 6 to secure a place in the 'A' final, Eddie made a poor start from the inside on grid 11. At the second chicane, he was pushed wide by Dave Lewis into the path of a spinning kart. A furious Eddie managed to catch up to the baclk of the pack and eventually finished down in 13th place.
A disappointed Eddie started 7th in the 'B' final and was fired up to make a top 4 finish. Again making a poor start from the inside, Eddie got stuck behind a slower group of karts. Managing to make a few places back, he had an almost race-long battle with kart 16 and finished in 7th, 3 places away from an 'A' final start.
Eddie was, again, not happy after the race and tried to make a complaint against kart 16. "Virtually every corner, I could see the guy's right hand go down the choke the carb, which is supposed to be not allowed in this series. I tried to lodge a complainty after the race but, typically, it fell on deaf ears. That particularly pisses me off because I know if roles were reversed I would have been picked up on it on the track and instantly black flagged!"
This was a real disappointment for Eddie, who was hoping for a good result at this track. "It is a circuit that I quite like. I was really impressed with all of the other drivers at Clay and I thought that I might have finally got rid of my bad luck. I just don't know what I have to do to avoid being the victim of people's target practice! I'm sure I'm not doing anything wrong - I haven't been making any silly mistakes myself, but I do find it hard to believe I can be consistently this unlucky."
Despite these setbacks, Eddie's manager was still happy with his driver's performance. "I think he drove well again. He didn't make any mistakes himself on Saturday or Sunday. He was taken out by other drivers again, which is something that you have little control over. I think he should be pleased."
