“The best driving coach and one of the best race car drivers,” is what Khalid al Qubaisi called Sean Edwards, who died tragically in a crash at the Queensland Raceway in Australia early on Tuesday.
Edwards was a passenger in a Porsche which hit the barriers in a private test session; the 26-year-old was leading the Porsche Supercup championships and was due to arrive in Abu Dhabi today (Wednesday) for a testing session ahead of the support race at the F1 weekend at Yas Marina.
Al Qubaisi felt the tragic loss more than most in the local community, having been a long-time partner with Edwards on the local circuit. The pair won the Dunlop 24 hours at the Dubai Autodrome with al Qubaisi in 2012 and 2013. He also raced for Team Abu Dhabi in Porsche Super Cup in 2010 and 2011, winning twice.
He had a short career in single-seaters, competing in the Formula Renault championship, before switching his attention to GT racing. He also competed in the FIA GT2 and GT3 series as well as the Le Mans Series.
“I started motor sports in 2009 and Sean was there by coincidence from the beginning as a coach for me and then he became my teammate,” a shaken al Qubaisi said. “He was really one of the nicest, most humble guys. He was so good, so fast and so professional and yet you would not have ever seen that in him because he was so humble.”
Al Qubaisi had spoken to Edwards late on Monday evening to finalise plans and schedules for when he arrived. But he was called by Edwards’ family soon after the crash. “They told me he had been involved in a big accident and I was praying that he would be ok but we got the news later.
“He was like a brother to me. We raced together for four years. When he came to the country he stayed with me and when we traveled we traveled together. I am just really devastated to hear this news.”
The shock of Edwards’ death reverberated around the motor sports community. “We are just absolutely unbelievably shocked,” said Paul Velasco, communications manager at the Dubai Autodrome. “Sean Edwards was no stranger to the Autodrome. The guy was an enormously quick and an extremely talented racing driver. He didn’t get his break in F1 but he was a top, top runner in the Porsche Super Cup.”
Edwards was leading the Porsche Super Cup drivers table by 18 points with one race left, at Yas Marina, raising the possibility of a posthumous championship title. He was also the son of the former F1 driver Guy Edwards, remembered famously as the man who pulled Niki Lauda out of his burning Ferrari during the 1976 F1 season in Nurburgring.
He actually had a bit part in ‘Rush’, the recent Hollywood recreation of that crash, in which Sean played his father.
