European Rotax Title For Eastwood
| driver press | 12 September 2013 |
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Charlie Eastwood completed an historic quadruple by adding the Euro Max Challenge title to his Grand Finals, Irish Karting GP and Florida Winter Tour crowns.
The Irishman’s greatest threat at the fourth and final round, held at Salbris (7/8 September) came from his own team-mates; Harry Webb and Kyle Fowlie both stood strong chances of snatching the overall victory from Eastwood, should he stumble at the final hurdle.
Above: Charlie Eastwood leads Pierce Lehane at Salbris
pic - Bas Kaligis
“Salbris proved to be very exciting, as my closest rivals were all Strawberry drivers”, Charlie explained. “It was all very tense and competitive, but we were team-mates after all, so you needed to remain professional and focused on delivering the right result for the team, as well as for yourself.”
Eastwood struck an early psychological blow by setting the fastest lap during timed-qualifying and went on to claim pole position for the first of Sunday’s two finals. However, with Webb and Fowlie close behind him on the starting grid, in 4th and 6th respectively, everything had to go to plan.
“At this point, Harry was my closest rival and I knew I had to do well in both races. If I won the two finals and Harry was 2nd, then that would be enough for me to win it. However, in the first final, he was black-flagged and in those circumstances, the rules state that a driver cannot contest the main final.”
Above: Charlie with the Euro MAX trophy and ticket to the World Final
pic - Bas Kaligis
He put one hand on the trophy after taking third place in the Pre-Final, but still couldn’t relax. Fowlie had won and with victory came a good haul of championship points. This meant the Scot had a chance of causing a major shock should Eastwood falter in the title-deciding showdown. “In some ways [Harry’s disqualification] took the pressure off and yet put it right back on,” Charlie explained.
Some frantic number-crunching showed what needed to be done. In order for Charlie to achieve his goal he had to finish second, or higher: “I didn’t want to risk an accident with Kyle and undo all our hard work,” he said. “So my plan was to stay calm and push away from the chasing pack with him. We both knew that if he crossed the line first and I was second, then I would be champion and he would move up to second in the points table. Initially, I pushed Kyle hard through the opening stages but once I saw that the rest of the field was too busy fighting each other to trouble us, we eased up and made sure it was a calm run to the chequered flag.” He added: “It’s a great feeling. The world championship is held over just one race meeting but the Euro is a multi-round championship, so winning it shows that I can rise to the big, single-occasion events and perform consistently over a season.”
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Above: Eastwood leads a race start
pic - Bas Kaligis
