Goodwood – 3rd August 2019
Steve: FTD & New Sprint Course Record – 74.33s Watch Video
Matt: 2nd Overall – 76.18s
Steve: We weren’t sure whether we were going to Goodwood until late Thursday afternoon as we were 4th reserve, but Brighton & Hove MC contacted us to let us know that myself and Matt had got an entry. The car was mostly prepared already, we had already made some changes to the set up of the car, so we were looking to test to see if they had improved the handling and also the prototype component (which had been the issue at Castle Combe last week) had been revised, once we had discovered what the problem was. As usual, it was a very big entry for this event at Goodwood. Matt went first and came back saying the car felt great, all the mechanical and aero changes have only improved the car still further. My practice run was 75s and the car went round very comfortably. On the 1st timed run I drove first and managed to break the sprint course record with a 74.33s, which was 9/100th quicker. I knew I wanted to be flat out off the start line into Madgwick but was having a lift before re-applying the throttle, then coming up to No Name which is a daunting corner, where Stirling Moss had his big crash, is another corner that should be taken flat out before braking and turning into St Mary’s, again having a lift. I was hoping that on T2, I could feel confident enough to turn in at just over 150mph but unfortunately, somebody had had a problem with their car and dropped gearbox oil on almost half the circuit. Matt came in after his second run, reported that the circuit was very slippery and posted a time about 5s off. This obviously put me off, however, I managed to get a reasonably quick lap, tried a couple of different things and although the track was a bit cleaner for my run, the circuit was very slippery particularly at Lavant and I had a bit of a 4-wheel drift. Still managed to post a 75s, many of the other drivers had decided that it was a bit too slippery and not take their 3rd timed run. Matt had finally worked out why he was losing top speed against me and wanted to go again to prove a point. He was my turn to drive first, when out a little wary of the circuit and managed to post a time within 1/10th of my record-breaking time. Reported to Matt on the change over that the circuit now felt good, so Matt went out with confidence and managed a 75.18s, this moved him into 2nd place behind me so overtake Glyn Sketchley who had retired with a mechanical issue after T1. Matt’s top speed was now making mine, so he was happy to have sorted the problem. All in all a good day, a very smooth-running event organised by Brighton & Hove MC.