Irish driver Eoin Murray came away with Third place in hotly contested Seat Leon Eurocup Championship at Valencia this weekend. Eoin started the weekend just seven points adrift of joint leaders of the Championship, Gabor Weber and Michael Rossi, but was unable to close the gap over the final two action packed rounds.
A difficult qualifying session when a rear arm in the Leon came un-done meant that Eoin could only manage to start in fourteenth position in race one. Murray who drives for the Portuguese team Oasis Motorsport, with support from Louropel & Saraiva had a strong opening two laps to make his way through the field to run in fifth place before an overheating problem with his car saw him lose power and drop back to ninth by the chequered flag.
Unlucky to miss out on a front row position in the reverse grid Eoin started race two from ninth after race 1 the engine was checked by engineers and expected to perform without a problem for Sunday’s race. Eoin was carving his way through the field when the car, again, began to lose power. As a result his speed was down by about 3kph on each straight. At this point it became a damage limitation exercise from a championship point of view and Eoin had to nurse the car home in sixth position to clinch third place in the championship by just one point.
Speaking from Valencia after the race a sanguine Murray said “Obviously my goal was to win this championship but third in a European Championship is a rewarding result particularly when measured against our resources and budget for this year. I am satisfied with my driving as I feel I got the maximum out of the car and especially here at Valencia where it was obvious to everyone we had a power problem. I showed good speed and consistency this year by finishing every race and visiting the podium many times, I think the only driver to do so, and subsequently impressed my team Oasis Motorsport which is very important for my future career’’. |
