2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
Club100 returned to the fabled Spa Francorchamps circuit for the first time since 2006 for the annual European 10 hour event. Eddie Hall and Target Racing team mate Lee Kemp were joined by Galliard’s Paul Williams in the Les Coup d’Herbe team. Both Hall and Les Coupe have enjoyed success in previous years.
The event comprised 4 two and a half hour races each day, with the best 3 scores being counted towards the European championship.
The weekend started well for the team: 5th in the first race put them in confident mood. They could only manage 7th in class in the second race, however, after the kart developed engine problems during the race. Nevertheless, Les Coupe found themselves 6th overall after the first day.
Having got their kart checked and tested overnight, the team felt confident about repeating their performance on Sunday. However, their kart still had problems and after a small spin from Paul Williams, the team opted to sacrifice the race and get their kart tested. With Eddie behind the wheel, he brought 3 different karts in before finally getting one that worked.
Despite having to start at the back of the grid for the final race, the team were looking strong for a top 5 finish. Alas, at the start a driver in front of Kemp clipped a cone which bounced off Lee’s kart. The officials mistakenly gave Lee a 30 second “stop and go” penalty for hitting the cone. Unfortunately, the penalty was not radioed through and Lee was called in to serve the penalty again. Frustrated, he handed his last stint over to Eddie. With Paul not wanting to do another stint, Eddie was triple stinted at the end and, despite keeping pace with the leaders, finished well down in the Premier class.
Despite the disappointing end to the event, Eddie was upbeat about things afterwards.
“It’s a shame we couldn’t come away with a better result. I think our aim of a top five or six was pretty good and that is where we would have finished without our problems, for sure. I think the guys did a fantastic job and I’d like to thank both Lee and Paul for their great efforts over the weekend. It was a really enjoyable race and I hope we can do more together in the future.”
