2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
Despite showing a good turn of speed on Friday and Saturday, Eddie struggled with pace on Sunday and branded his performance as “pathetic”. The sprint race on Sunday saw rival Lee Kemp take the championship with 3 races to spare.
Friday
Eddie was in action on the Friday for the afternoon practice session. Returning to the Welsh Llandow circuit for the first time since 2007, Eddie quickly got on the pace and set the third quickest time.
Saturday
Eddie curtailed his running in Saturday practice to get the brake fluid changed and allow his team mates to get more track time. Eddie then qualified the team 12th on the grid out of the 30 strong line-up.
Chris Bell took the start and had to take avoiding action because of a first corner accident, dropping to the tail of the field. He quickly got back on the pace and started clawing his way back up the field. The team bought him in for the first scheduled pit stop as he came up to traffic and he rejoined just before the race was stopped after a nasty accident on the start/finish straight.
Tactically this would have played into the team’s hands but sadly Bell found himself at the tail of the field and lost track position at the restart. The team bought him in a few minutes before his second scheduled stop to bring Eddie out in clean air.
Eddie double stinted for the middle phase of the race and continued to put in some good laps and establish the team well within the top 7. Marc Laukam did the final stints and maintained position. However, he missed the pit signals for his final stop and had to queue in the fuel bay.
The team eventually finished 7th in class and Eddie was satisfied with the result.
“It was a pretty good result really. We finished ahead of RBB who are probably our main rivals at the moment. It’s a pity about the last stop because I think that cost us a position but 5 points probably isn’t going to make much difference to us really. We do need to sort our pit work out thought because that has been a problem for us all year. Still, we’ve got three races still to run and hopefully we can get some good results on the board.”
Sunday
Having shown good pace on Friday and Saturday, Eddie was confident going into the sprint race on Sunday. However, his confidence would be short lived; he made a kart change prior to the start of the first qualifying heat and fell from second on the grid to fourth. A seventh and a tenth followed and he never looked on the pace in any of the heats.
The qualifying heats put Eddie only 20th on the grid for the A final and he was, yet again, faced with the task of fighting his way through the field.
Making a good start, Eddie jumped 5 places on the first lap. He then made an uncharacteristic error on lap 2 when he made contact with a kart in front and spun off. He got going again and picked up a few places as a result of other drivers misfortunes but only came home in a lowly 23rd place.
Eddie didn’t disguise his disappointment afterwards and had some harsh words about his performance.
“I don’t know what my problem was today. I just couldn’t get comfortable with the kart in any of the heats and I had no confidence, especially under braking. I was off the pace and just pathetic quite frankly. I thought I might be able to make it up in the final and I made a good start but then I tried going for a half-arsed move going into the double left-hander at the bottom of the circuit, touched the guy in front, locked up and went off. I kept on going because I can’t afford to drop any points now but I was so badly off the pace it was a joke.”
The race saw Lee Kemp finish second; a result that netted him the championship. Eddie was quick to praise his rival.
“I’m really happy for Lee. He has been the class act all year and really deserves this. Once it became clear that I wasn’t going to be a contender this year I’ve been routing for him. Despite being my rival, he is a really good mate and we have become good friends both on and off the track. He is a top bloke and Club100 needs more drivers like him – although obviously not as quick because I want to win.”
