2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
It was a better day for the second and final round of the Winter Championship with Eddie coming home a comfortable fifth after managing to stay out of trouble during qualifying.
After getting his kart tested in practice, Eddie qualified 3rd behind the on-form Thomas Grainger and Zac Seward. After getting a good start, Eddie dived through into second at turn 1 but ran wide and let Dan Gore through. He spent most of the heat tucked up behind Gore before losing out to the recovering Grainger on the last lap.
Starting fourth for heat two on the slippery outside line, Eddie lost out at the start and dropped to sixth. Another relatively uneventful heat following Dan Gore meant that he made little progress and crossed the line in an easy 6th place.
Solid qualifying heats put Eddie 6th on the grid for the final. The whole final was spent battling with his old Lightweight sprint nemesis Parmveer Nijjar – the 2008 title protagonists joining the battling with Seward, Grainger and Gore for the lead.
In the end, Eddie’s last lap effort to pass Nijjar at the hairpin failed and he followed him home in fifth place. Eddie was moderately happy with the result.
“It was a much more enjoyable day because I managed to stay out of trouble. No one fired me off at the hairpin and I managed to stay at the front where it’s safer.”
Dan Gore literally stole the victory across the finish line to wrap up the championship and Eddie was quick to congratulate his long-time rival.
“It’s great for Dan because he’s had some pretty awful luck over the years. He came very close to winning this last year but suffered in the final race and he rivals me for his bad luck in the main championship so it’s good to see him win. It’s such a shame that I had a bad day last weekend because I like to think I would have been challenging the top three but I had good fun and it’s a good warm up for the proper championship.”
