2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
With less than a month to go before the start of the 2010 season, Eddie has made a surprise last minute switch to the Galliard team that will be effective from round 2 onwards. He will compete in the opening race of the season with Target Racing alongside Trevor Randall and Lee Kemp but will defect to rivals Galliard from the second race.
In an official statement, Eddie gave his reasons for the move that will see him switch to his fourth different team in four years.
“It is with great sadness that I’ve decided to close the door on Target Racing. It is a decision that I gave much consideration over the winter but one that I feel is the right move for my long term goals.”
He went on to cite the main reasons for the decision to switch.
“Galliard is a team committed to endurance racing and have been a regular top five or six team in the Prems for the best part of a decade. I’m looking forward to joining a team that can offer stability as well as success and hopefully we can challenge for the podium. I race for their French counterpart (Les Coupe d’herbe) in the European championship with Paul Williams and the guys always give me inspiration for my Karting Magazine articles so I’m confident we’ll work well together.
“I will be going there just as a driver which suits me nicely. I’ve been a team captain for the last two years and it will be nice to relieve myself of some responsibility. I’ve got a lot of business commitments now and, on top of that, writing articles for Club100 and Karting Magazine, racing in four championships and various other racing commitments, having to sort the team and drivers for every race is an extra burden I’d rather not have and I need to find ways of easing my workload.
“We are very close to the start of the season now and I was the only driver at Target who was signed up for the whole year. Trevor [Randall] and Lee [Kemp] were both available for a handful of races and I’m sure other top drivers would have become available but, as team captain, I would have spent the lead-up to every race trying to sort two spaces in a team and I felt that would have a negative effect on the team’s performance. You need consistency to have success at this level.”
Eddie said he hoped the move would be for the longer term but would not comment on the specifics of the deal. He also said that rumours of Galliard throwing in a £250,000 luxury apartment as part of the deal were well wide of the mark.
“I will certainly be racing in white and blue and that is all I can say. I will not be shaving my head to fit in with the look of my team mates, nor will I be receiving a luxury property from Galliard Homes. I’m looking at the long-term with this move because I don’t like switching teams every year. This is my fourth year in the Premier Championship and I’ve raced for a different team each year so it will be nice to have a bit of continuity for once.”
Despite the shortness of his stay at Target Racing, Eddie said he had no regrets.
”The Target Racing project was always a risk. When I left 3Cubed at the end of ’08, I left behind a team that I liked very much and who were committed long term to endurance racing but I just felt that we would never break out of the mid-field. I knew that with Target Racing I would be challenging nearer the front but with the understanding that it may only be a short-term situation. In any case, we achieved all our goals last year; a podium finish and a top 6 in the championship so as far as I’m concerned we got the job done.”
As well as racing in the Premier Endurance championship, Eddie will once again race for Les Coupe d’herbe in the European Championship. He has already confirmed that he will stay on as the fourth driver for Avit Racing in their defence of the Open Championship and will continue for one more year in the Lightweight Sprint Championship.
