Dan Eaves - Career

Career

He started racing karts in 1990 before switching to cars in 1994. He raced in the National Saloon Cup in 1999 and 2000, finishing 4th in the series both times with a Bowman Motorsport Peugeot 306. In 2000 the British Touring Car Championship ran a Class B for these cars, and Bowman Motorsport under the name of Touring Car VIP Club had Eaves entered 2 rounds in his 306. When Vic Lee took over the team, renaming Vic Lee Racing, Eaves was retained to drive in a new factory Peugeot entry for the 2001 BTCC, in a Peugeot 406 coupe.

This was a transitional year for the championship, and Eaves finished 5th out of a fairly thin field, although he beat veteran team-mate Steve Soper. For 2002 Peugeot pulled out but the team remained, with Halfords backing and now with Independent status. Eaves won Indy honours ahead of former Superbike racer Aaron Slight, and team-mate Tim Harvey. For 2003 his team-mate was Carl Breeze and later Danny Buxton, this time in a VLR-built 307, and after a slow start he was Independent class winner several times. The team pulled out before 2004, but Dan found a drive with Team Dynamics in a Honda Civic. He was 8th in the standings that year, taking his first ever championship win.

In 2005 Eaves continued with Team Dynamics (which was entered as Team Halfords in reference to their main sponsor) racing a Honda Integra. He recorded five wins, including 3 at Thruxton - the first time that one driver has won three BTCC races in one meeting. He also won the final race at the Croft circuit in Yorkshire. He ended the season 3rd in the championship after a fight to take second place in the championship at the last race at Brands Hatch was ended when he was caught up in a controversial crash caused by a shove from Yvan Muller going into turn 1 that also collected Jason Plato. Muller retained second place in the championship and Dan finished in third place in the Championship, four behind the Frenchman. At the end of the 2005 season it seemed a certainty that Eaves would be retained by his team, but in February 2006, a falling out with team owner Steve Neal resulted in Team Dynamics replacing him with Gordon Shedden for the 2006 season.

Eaves was poised to join Team Clyde Valley Racing in the 2007 BTCC season, when the team were tipped to enter a pair of bio-ethanol Chevrolet Lacettis. However, the team did not appear in that year or in 2008 after a sponsor pulled out. The team entered in 2009 giving Eaves his return to the BTCC alongside Adam Jones in a pair of bio-ethanol fuelled SEAT Leons under the banner of Cartridge World Carbon Zero Racing. However Eaves backed away from the team to allow them to bring in some sponsorship held by another driver Gordon Shedden after a frustrating start to the season for Eaves (lack of spares and an underpowered engine) caused him to re-think whether he wanted to drive for the struggling CVR. Problems with the finances of the team meant the team later withdrew from the season.