2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
It was a fairly successful day at Llandow on Sunday as Eddie, in only his second sprint race of the season, secured his best ever finish, with a solid 10th in the A final. The experience gained from racing in the endurance race the previous day was a valuable asset.
Eddie started at the back of the grid in his first heat. Making a good start, Eddie made up places on the first lap and continued to move up the order. Getting involved in a bitter fight with Tim Hill and Dave Lewis, Eddie managed to take advantage as the two came to blows near the end.
“It was funny to watch. Those two are probably the two most aggressive drivers in the field and they were certainly racing very hard. I thought Dave was going to burst a blood vessel after the race. To be honest, though, I didn’t see anything wrong with their fight. I mean all they needed to do was give each other a bit more room and it would have been fine - certainly Tim took it all in good spirit. I managed to nip by Lewis and Hill but Tim got straight back down the inside of me and seventh place was the result.”
For Eddie’s second heat he started 7th on the grid. Again making a good start, he gained places off the line and then took advantage of an incident (again involving Lewis) to finish an excellent third, only a few seconds off the lead.
Starting second on the grid for his third and final heat, Eddie lost ground at the first chicane when he suffered slight fuel surge. He continued to slowly slip down the order over the next two laps but was running comfortably in the top 6 before running wide and being rammed of the circuit by Lee Clackett.
“I was getting a bit worried on the rolling up laps because the kart seemed to be surging a bit too much. I nearly bought it in to be checked but it seemed to clear itself. It surged at the exit of the chicane and I got swamped and dropped to fifth or sixth. I then made a mistake on lap 3 and ran wide and was removed by Clackett. Thankfully he was excluded from the result!”
Fortunately for Eddie, due to the low numbers and his good results in his first two heats, he qualified straight into the A final in 18th.
Making a good start again, Eddie rapidly started to make progress through the field. It all kicked off on about lap 5. Leader Craddock spun, then reigning champion, Brain Trott, went off and Eddie again found himself staring at the rear bumper of Tim Hill.
“It’s funny. Sir Timothy came up to me in the morning stating that he hadn’t appeared on my website for a while and today we spent most of the day on the same piece of tarmac. I have to be careful what I say this time because he didn’t take too kindly to my comment about him holding me up in my last sprint race at Clay and stated ‘If I ever hold you up Eddie, it will be with a walther ppk when I rob you’… I think I will give him the gun at Buckmore…”
It was a case of déjà vu for Eddie as Dave Lewis came past and started battling with Hill again. However, this time it didn’t last for long.
“When Dave came past me I though ‘here we go again - bloodshed’ but fortunately, for me, they actually had an accident this time involving someone else and I managed to nip through and claim my best ever result.
The race was won by Jamie Jakins, but the undoubted highlight was Chris Simpson taking his first sprint podium with 3rd. One of the most popular faces in Club100, everybody was happy at the result.
“It’s great for Chris. He’s a really nice bloke and he does a lot for the Club. It’s great to see him get a good result – he deserves it!”
