2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
The 2011 season officially got underway on 13th February with Eddie making his debut in the new 60 Minute challenge series with Richard Higham.
A cold and wet Buckmore Park played host to the opening race and Eddie qualified 6th out of the full 32 kart field. Although a respectable place, Eddie wasn’t happy with how qualifying went.
“We should have been a lot higher than that. I felt I was much quicker in practice but as soon as qualifying started I came up to a train of slower karts. I couldn’t back off to give myself room because there was a train behind me as well so I had to battle my way through. It’s the problem with an open series like this where there is quite a big differential in speed between the competitors. Still, I managed to get a couple of fairly quick laps in and I’m sure we’ll make up places in the race.”
Eddie did make up places off the grid and got as high as fourth. Sadly it only lasted until turn 1 where he got sandwiched between two karts and spun round. Dropping to last, Eddie made a storming recovery and was up to 6th by the time he came in for his one mandatory pit stop after 20 minutes.
Rich Higham took over for the final 40 minutes and continued to put some consistently quick laps in to close the gap down to the leaders. Sadly, the gap to the top 3 was too big to claw back and the team had to settle for 4th place.
“Finishing fourth is the most annoying place to be because you are just off the podium. Still, after the start we had, it was a pretty good result so I am happy. The team did a fantastic job and the guys called me in for my stop at just the right time. I think we gained a couple of positions with that. Rich drove really well and I’m already looking forward to the next race.”
The Premier series starts this weekend. Eddie will be in action with Galliard Team-mate Paul Williams and reserve driver Kieran McCullough standing in for the still indisposed Chris Hoyle.
