2013-12-09 09:17:19.2
Eddie equalled his best result in the Premier Endurance Championship with a fine 3rd place finish. Another potential podium on Sunday was scuppered after a mistake in his final qualifying heat relegated him to 17th on the grid for the final.
Saturday
A combination of the heat and the already worn tyres meant that many of the teams were struggling for grip. Eddie could manage no better than 15th on the grid in qualifying but made a solid start to get himself inside the top 10 in his first stint.
The team brought him in early and Chris Hoyle went out and continued to put in some great laps to consolidate galliard’s place near the front. Paul Williams went out next but seemed uncharacteristically off the pace and dropped back. Knowing that a podium position was on the cards he made an honourable decision to put Eddie back out for a double stint.
Eddie managed to get the team up into a net third place, a position that Hoyle held until the end. This was the team’s first podium finish for several years. In only his third race for the Galliard team, Eddie told the eagerly awaiting journalist that this proves his decision to join the team this year was the best move.
“I’m happy for the guys because it has been a while since they were on the podium. This is my second podium at Premier level in six races so I feel I’m making progress. The guys did a great job today and Paul made a very selfless call to give me his second stint. It shows how much of a team player he is and Galliard really is an excellent team. I know we benefited from a few of our rivals having problems today but we’ve shown that we have the pace to challenge and this is where I want to be. I’m sure this will be the first of many good results we’ll achieve together.”
Sunday
Eddie came into round 4 of the sprint championship clearly aiming for the win. After a rather lacklustre performance so far this season, Eddie admitted that he needed a good result to kick-start his championship defence.
A third place in his first qualifying heat was a good start and a top 10 from the back of the grid in his second heat virtually consolidated his place in the A-final. Knowing that he needed a top 3 finish in his third heat, Eddie was on course to do so. However, on the final lap he made a move for second going into the second hairpin. Defending hard coming down the back straight he lost momentum and lost out to Liam Nolan. He then rode over the back of Nolan’s kart and was lucky to keep going. This incident dropped him down to 10th and put him 17th on the grid for the final.
Starting so far back, it was always going to be difficult to make up ground on this circuit. Eddie nevertheless gave it his all and clawed his way up to 8th over the course of the 1`2 laps. He was understandably disappointed after the race.
“That was about as good as I could have hoped for after my mistake in qualifying. I’m gutted about that because I was on course for a front row start. In hindsight I should have relinquished the second place when he came back down my inside but I was so keen to get those extra points for second. It was a stupid mistake and it probably cost me a podium finish – maybe even a win. Still, I have to look at the fact that [Dan] Gore only finished three places ahead of me and [Glen] Beard was racing at Le Mans and didn’t score. I’m still in the hunt but I know I need to pull my finger out now.”
Eddie now stands third in the sprint championship and 6th in the endurance series. The next race is a Llandow in Wales. Galliard will be running without Chris Hoyle for this event and after Trevor Randall counted himself out of the running for the vacant seat, his place will instead be taken by 4 times Premier Endurance champion and twice European champion Graeme Coombes.
