2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
Avit Racing’s championship defence took another hit after brake failure beset the team. Reliability issues have plagued the team at every race so far this season and Eddie admitted that the chances of retaining the championship are all but gone.
Eddie could only manage 8th in qualifying, although the top 10 were separated by less than half a second.
Making a good start, Eddie jumped up to fifth off the line but going into the dreaded first hairpin, he was tagged by the erratic Matt Brookes and lost almost an entire lap waiting to be push-started. He nevertheless made great progress over the first stint and managed to get up to twelfth before handing over to Darren Price.
Price moved up to 8th in his stint and Ian Sage maintained this position. By the time Eddie went out for his second stint, the team were chasing down the top 5 and even a podium looked possible at one stage. However, during Ian’s last stint and with only 3o minutes of the race remaining, he suffered complete brake failure and the team lost several laps being pushed back to the pits and having to take a spare kart.
An eventual 10th place finish was all the team could manage in the end and a resigned Eddie gave his views of the day.
“It’s disappointing but at least I managed to get a team together. Two days before this race I had no team mates and it looked like I was either going to have to abandon the event or compete on my own. Thanks for Darren and Ian for stepping in at the last minute and they both did a great job. It’s obviously disappointing to suffer another mechanical failure but we’ve just got to get our heads down and fight as hard as we can for the rest of the season. Given our poor results so far I think it’s going to take a miracle for us to retain the championship now but hopefully our luck will change soon.”
He also gave his views on the first lap altercation with his old sprint rival. “To be honest, I was almost expecting it. He was really ragged going round Stadium and I nipped past on the outside and I was expecting to feel a bit of a tap going into the hairpin but he gave me quite a wallop when I was half way round and there was nothing I could do about it. I know Brooksey well enough to know it was an accident and he explained it to me afterwards so there is no problem. It’s more frustrating because it keeps happening at the same corner at Rye. Even more annoying because he didn’t get a penalty and he ended up winning the race. Still, what can I do?”
Eddie will next be in action at the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium for the annual European event. He will be racing for Les Coupe d’herbe with Galliard team mate Paul Williams as well as Lee Kemp and Super 1 driver Charlie Bruce-White.
