Goodwood, Eagle Sprint
Steve & Matt were competing in the SBD 2.0L XE Dallara
Matt: FTD – 72.88s
Steve: 2nd Overall – 73.03s
Saturday was a baking hot day in the mid-30s, apart from changing the wing settings to suit Goodwood, the car was the same as it was for Castle Combe. Matt went first as usual and said the car felt very good with plenty of grip even though oil had already been spilt at Woodcote. Steve went out for his practice put in a reasonably quick time, but felt the rear was definitely a bit loose around by the Shell building and assumed it was just the dust left on the circuit to get rid of the oil. The grip off the start line was extremely good and the car was already posting 1.79s 64ft start times. On the 1st timed run, Matt put in a 72.88s to be fastest (1.75s 64ft time), Steve still felt the rear end of the car loose under braking and turning. Due to the heat it was agreed that the event was to be shortened to only 2 timed runs, because it was getting way too hot for the marshals out on circuit, so Steve only had one more run to beat Matt.
Matt’s 2nd timed run was slower and Steve focused on the start line ready to go flat out without lifting into the first corner, he was sitting there thinking it was baking hot, the track is bone dry, the car feels good only a bit wobbly under braking so this is going to happen. Just as he had finished thinking this, the car that was waiting on the start line about 20 metres ahead dumped oil and water in a nice long trail up the pit lane and on to the circuit! There was a pause while they treated this and needless to say, the moment was spoilt along with a slippery start! The car was definitely more lively at the rear and we weren’t sure how much of it was to do with the oil and water combination on the circuit or maybe something in the set up, but with the day over Matt pipped Steve to FTD by just over 1/10th.
We have looked at the data since and worked out the car has slightly more rake than it had earlier in the season and this was potentially making the rear more lively under braking and turning and although the car was slower than what we had done for the last event, the first part of the circuit was definitely quicker and Steve was on the rev limiter in top turning into No Name, so a few tweaks are going to be made to the set up ready for Snetterton.