2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
The Lance Yeomans Memorial race ended a perfect weekends racing for Eddie as he and the IMSD Racing team cruised to a class victory and finishing fourth overall.
After what Eddie described as his best performance ever in the sprint on Saturday, he continued his form on Sunday by storming from 19th on the grid to second and setting fastest lap of the day by two tenths of a second.
The days format was new to many of the teams with four half and hour sprint races and two one hour endurance races.
After only a couple of practice laps to allow his team-mates more track time, the team started ninth on the grid – the positions being determined by the teams bidding money.
Ian Wilson started the first sprint race and immediately moved into the top 6. Running comfortably with the leaders, the team called him in for their compulsory 1 stop. There was a slight delay when Ian slightly over-ran his pit box but the stop went smoothly and the team got him out in clear air, which allowed Ian to maintain track position and finish a very competitive sixth.
A late strategy change meant that Eddie would drive in the second sprint race. The grids were in reverse order of the finishing positions from the first race, which meant that Eddie lined up 19th on the grid. After making several places at the start, Eddie got involved in a frantic scrap in the mid field. Realising that he was being held up, the team called him in for a very early stop. Rejoining in clear air, Eddie proceeded to put in some storming laps, setting the fastest lap of the day with a 45.36.
Making short work of the backmarkers, Eddie found himself in second position and was able to keep the charging Essex TT at bay by carving his way through the traffic. Despite struggling with a shortage of fuel, Eddie managed to hold onto his second place, only 4 seconds behind winners Conservatories Online from the premier class.
Race three saw Stephen start from the back row of the grid. Making his now customary flyer off the line, he found himself in the mid-field after the opening lap. He proceeded to make short work of the traffic before the team called him in for the mandatory stop after 10 minutes.
Again, the strategy worked well as Stephen gained track position. Despite also having fuel starvation problems over the last couple of laps, Stephen nevertheless managed to cross the line in an impressive sixth position.
New recruit, Alex Withington, who was filling in for the absent Ian Miller, took the helm for the final sprint race of the day. Like Eddie, Alex started 19th on the grid. He made solid progress and got up into thirteenth by the time the team decided to call him in. Making sure that he wouldn’t have the same fuel concerns that befell the other team members they decided to bring him in at the halfway stage.
A sensible and consistent drive saw Alex bring the kart home in a very respectable ninth position.
The endurance races saw the team pair Eddie with Ian and Stephen with Alex. This was because neither Eddie nor Ian needed any ballast on the kart and Stephen and Alex were both carrying a similar amount on the weight post.
Eddie started the one-hour race from 17th on the grid. Again making solid progress on the opening few laps, the team called him in early for the first of three compulsory fuel stops.
Ian took over for the second stint and continued the rapid form, getting up as high as eighth before the second changeover. Eddie took over for a long stint and got up to fifth, with a more than comfortable margin over the next team – a position that Ian held to the flag.
The last race of the day saw Stephen start from 20th on the grid. A stop on the eight-minute mark saw Stephen come in from 10th on the road.
Alex then took over but seemed to get stuck in traffic and was unable to make further progress up the order and started to fall back into the mid-field. Seeing that he was obviously struggling, the team called him in early from thirteenth for Stephen to drive a long middle stint. Stephen easily closed the gap to the karts in front and made short work of passing them. Despite losing at least half a lap when a ridiculously over ambitious lunge from Martin Joyce resulted in Stephen being taken out, he still managed to get up to an impressive eighth before handing back to Alex, who maintained this position to the finish.
These solid and consistent results saw the team take their second consecutive race victory in the Inters class, beating their arch nemesis HB Racing. Not only that, but they finished fourth overall only two points behind top Premier team Conservatories Online!
The overall win appropriately went to Essex TT, of which Ben Yeomans drives.
