2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
Despite difficulties on both days, Eddie declared himself satisfied with the results at round 7 of the championship in Dorset.
Friday
The 3 day event began on Friday with Eddie partnering Target Racing team mate and sprint rival Lee Kemp in practice. The duo were on the pace from the outset and all signs looked good for a strong weekend. Eddie ended the session fastest out of the two and second fastest in the session with a time barely a tenth of a second off the fastest lap.
Saturday
With Marc Laukam missing from this race, Target Racing drafted in the Flying Finn Sami Seppala. Having never raced in an Endurance event before and having not driven on the circuit either, Eddie admitted prior to the event that he wasn’t expecting the team to be challenging for the podium.
The qualifying pace demonstrated the team’s lack of pace immediately with Chris Bell only managing to line up 30th out of the 34 competitors – two places higher than the initial position as the team benefited from two teams being disqualified for weight infringement.
Eddie took the start and double stinted, getting the team up to 14th before handing over to Seppala, who also double stinted. There was slight confusion at his last stop where Sami misunderstood the pit signals and came in for an unscheduled stop. Feeling like he wasn’t on the pace he handed back to Eddie for a quick 10 minute stint before Bell took over for the last stint.
The team eventually finished down in 11th in class after a long and difficult afternoon. Eddie was non-committal after the race:
“When Marc said he wouldn’t be available, it was always going to be hard to find someone to fill his shoes at such short notice. Sami did a great job for us and I know he feels bad about the pit stop but this was really a learning experience for him so I’m happy with his performance and grateful that he could step in. He is a really nice guy and such a character so he fitted in really well. He was definitely a better bet than Luca Badoer!
Our pace wasn’t good today and I think we made a mistake getting the kart adjusted in practice. We definitely lost out big time in the pits today so we need to get that sorted for next time but I’m sure we’ll bounce back and be strong in Wales.”
Sunday
Eddie returned to the circuit where he had arguably his finest sprint outing last year, passing Parmveer Nijjar on the last lap for the lead only to be re-passed two corners from home to finish second by 0.1 seconds.
Unfortunately, the heats didn’t go well for Eddie as he was yet again punted off in qualifying and barely scraped through to line up 22nd in the A final.
Making a great start, he ended the first lap in 13th and continued to make up places in the remaining laps to come home 7th, just behind Championship leader Lee Kemp.
Eddie was happy after the race to get some useful points on the board:
“Starting way down the back like that when you’re supposed to be at the front will end one of two ways: Either in the gravel or with a cracking drive. Luckily it was the latter for me and I was really happy with the way the race went. I just went for it at the start because I had nothing to lose and I’m not fighting for a championship now so I just went for it. I managed to avoid the few mid-field crazy people and got myself at the sharp end quite quickly. I sat behind Lee for the last couple of laps and tried a couple of times to get past because I could see he was struggling for straight line speed but he managed to defend well and I didn’t want to risk hitting him and damaging his title fight so I held back on the last lap.
Obviously it’s great to finish 7th from the back but it’s just a shame I didn’t start a bit further up the grid because I think I could have won. Never mind; onwards and sideways for the rest of the year!”
