Jade Edwards joined forces with her sister Chloe last weekend to take on the final UK round of the year of the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge.
Racing runs in the family with both their father and grandfather competing in various championships over the years.
The championship uses Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4s with 445 bhp engines, paddle-shift transmissions and aero. The same specification car as the ones that compete in the GT4 class of the British GT championship which Jade had competed in earlier in the season. She left that drive to take the opportunity to drive with her sister for the first time in the same car. Chloe hasn’t raced for a few seasons due to lack of funds but when she had competed previously she was every bit as good as her sibling. The experienced Stratton Motorsport were running the car so things were all set for a good weekend.
The first competitive session was Qualfying at the beginning of Saturday. The sisters managed fifth on the grid, only narrowly missing out on fourth and both felt they could still go quicker. Their confidence was high going into race one.
Jade would start both races and as the lights went out she got a great start, she moved up the field throughout the first lap and with a small amount of contact she emerged at the end of lap one in second place. Ex BTCC and current British GT driver Liam Griffin was in the lead up ahead and jade started hunting him down. Every lap she closed in and within only a few laps she was on his tail. With another lap she was through and into the lead. She now began pulling away and trying to build an advantage before she’d hand over to Chloe. Liam Griffin was also racing with a sibling, handing over to his brother Kieran.
At just past halfway, the team decided it was the best moment to bring Jade in to hand over to Chloe. Initially things seemed to go well but it soon became clear there was a problem with getting Chloe safely strapped in.
Obviously there was no way she could head out on track without being strapped in properly but vital time was edging away as the car sat stationary. After what seemed like a long time, Chloe was finally on her way. This was her first race for a few years but Chloe pushed hard to try and put the two sisters back in contention. It was a tough task and a small spin sealed their fate, with Chloe eventually finishing in sixth. On the positive side, they knew the pace was there and there was an opportunity to put things right on Sunday.
The second race was the last event on Sunday held after the British Gt finale. Jade made a good start again, although maybe not quite as good as race one. But she battled hard over the next few laps and fought her way up to second place. Once again she set off in pursuit of Liam Griffin. Again she passed him and pulled out a bit of a gap before handing over to Chloe.
This time there were no problems in the pit stop or for Chloe on track and she took the win 2.855 seconds ahead of Kieran Griffin to take the win for the sisters in only her second race back.
It was a great result for the sisters and what they hope will be the first of many.
Jade later commented on Twitter; “We had to wait a while for our race today, but my god was it worth the wait…” She continues; “Winning is always a great feeling, but to win with your sister is something you don’t forget……”
With the sisters planning on further races together, this could well be the first of many. The Edwards sisters have certainly proved they are a team to look out for! By Marc Waller
