2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
It was another mixed weekend at Ellough Park as 3Cubed again had a race to forget on the Saturday but Eddie scored a solid result in the Sprint race on Sunday, only missing out on another podium finish after his brakes faded.
Saturday
After the nightmare practice session at Bayford, Eddie went out early in practice to test the kart. Bringing it straight in to the pits complaining of engine problems, the team were given a new kart. The new kart proved to be fairly quick and Alex Withington opted to qualify. Although feeling confident of a competitive grid slot, Alex could only manage to qualify in 20th position.
John Emerson took the start but was taken out by Glen Beard in the early stages, leaving the team two laps behind. There was little they could do from this far back and despite good pit work, could finish no higher than 14th in the Premier class.
“It was another bad day really. I think we’re all a bit disappointed with the way the season is going, particularly as it got off to such a promising start at Buckmore. I don’t really know what to say. We’re a good team and we’re all fairly evenly matched and quick and our pit and support team are probably the best in the championship but we just don’t seem to be getting the results. We have a lot of improvements to make before France.”
Sunday
Eddie turned up for round 5 of the Sprint Championship with an 11 point lead over Guy Holliday at the head of the championship.
Qualifying was the usual story as Holliday took an easy pole position. Eddie had a first, tenth and second position in his qualifying heats to line up 3rd on the grid. Making a good start he slotted in behind Holliday to take second off the line. The two then proceeded to pull a 1 second gap over the rest of the pack.
Eddie was all over the back of Guy Holliday until half distance when his brakes faded and he fell back into the clutches of the chasing pack. Dropping to 6th, he managed to claw his way back up to 4th at the chequered flag, just 1/10th of a second off the final podium position.
”It was a real shame because I really felt I could have won today. During the practice laps I felt that the brakes were on their way out but the kart was a rocket so I took a chance, expecting the brakes to hold out for a short sprint race. I was pushing Guy really hard until about half distance where the brake pedal went virtually straight to the floor at turn 1 and I touched him. This allowed the other guys to get me and that was that really.
“I think, in hindsight, had I taken the endurance approach of hanging back we would have probably opened up a larger gap to the rest and I could have pushed harder in the latter stages but I suppose it’s easy to say that afterwards. Still fourth position is fairly respectable and I’m still leading the championship, which is the main thing.”
