Goodwood Eagle Sprint
The SBD 2.0L XE Dallara will be competing, driven by Steve & Matt.
Matt: FTD – 76.78s YouTube Video
Steve: 2nd Overall – 76.84s
We were hoping to go to Goodwood for lots of testing with aero set up and further development of the new gearbox control strategies, however before we arrived it looked as if it was going to be raining all day. Luckily the rain held off and although Matt went out for Practice on wets, the track had already begun to dry, he caught another car on track and was given a re-run. We had made a lot of changes prior to Goodwood to the damper settings, car rake and front mono-shock. Matt said the car felt quite stable and did nothing unexpected. We quickly changed the car to slicks and he put a good steady, but quick lap in and said the car definitely felt compliant and didn’t suggest any changes. Steve then drove the car and it felt very smooth and comfortable, but the track was still very damp on the corners meant that we weren’t driving the car to the apex and decided to leave it alone for the 1st timed run.
For the 1st timed run, the track was still damp at the places that you really wanted to be driving through, so care had to be taken. With the amount of rear wing we were using in order to test the stability and aero balance, the car was much slower down the straights. Steve was faster than Matt for 1st timed run, but because the track still wasn’t dry, we couldn’t get a complete idea about how the car was feeling overall.
During the lunchbreak, the sun came out and it got really quite warm, unfortunately just as lunch finished, it started to cloud over again and the closer we got to going out, the darker it got. Matt was first and got a nice run with a bit of sunshine, however by the time Steve had got in and got to the start line, there were a few spots of rain and looked very dark over the other side of the circuit. The car felt again nice and stable for both drivers, Steve tried something different through St Mary’s to see if the improved stability had helped with the rear end grip, it was definitely better and proved that more speed could be taken through the corner but both driver reported that the grip out of Woodcote was still limiting and the car felt unstable. As Steve finished his run, the heavens opened and the meeting was abandoned after that. We now have a good idea what the issues are with the aero balance and John Hughes has taken all the information so he can make changes to the aero parts in the model. We are now hoping that some the changes can be implemented prior to the next British Sprint Championship round at Blyton Park.
Steve had been testing and making changes to the gearbox strategies throughout the day and good progress has been made ready for more software updates.
A memorial was held at the circuit for the Rob, the marshal who had sadly passed away in an incident at Brands Hatch the previous weekend. He was supposed to have been marshalling at Goodwood on the Saturday and from the people that spoke before the minutes silence, we realised that he was known by many, if not all of the marshals at the meeting and had been the Mayor of our local town. We are always grateful for all the marshals that come along and look after us during the day without whom we wouldn’t be able to compete.