Steve: FTD & New Course Record – 72.63s YouTube Video

Matt: 2nd Overall – 73.08s

Zoe: Fastest Lady, 4th in Class – 97.40s

Steve’s Report: Brighton & Hove Motor Club’s Eagle Sprint last year was the last time we were at Goodwood, so it was nice to be back. We had made a few more subtle changes to the set up since Castle Combe, as usual I let Matt go first because he is always steady on his first go and came back saying the car just felt fantastic and would be able to go much faster next time.

I use the first corner Magdwick as a gauge as to how well the car is going to handle on the rest of the circuit with its double apex and undulation as you head towards the second apex. The car is a huge step forwards over last year as we already knew from Castle Combe. It was still not perfect because I could tell from the change in feedback over the undulation, but I knew that I would then be able to take No Name flat out. The feeling through No Name was completely planted and was just amazing. The car didn’t even move, I even had the option to change direction slightly in mid corner at about 155mph whilst braking and turning into St Marys! The rest of the circuit was also much easier to drive with the improvements. On first practice, I have already unofficially gone under the lap record with 73.43s.

Timed run 1, I was confident that I was going to be faster easily, but ended up be a tenth slower. Matt went out and was 0.03s faster than me. After looking at the data with Matt, you could tell that his lighter weight giving him an advantage of acceleration, but I was still quicker through No Name, so I knew I had to do a really good job to beat him. T2 was a much better lap and hoped I had done enough to beat Matt as he normally improved with each run. I had made a small camber change to the rear and definitely felt the car was even more stable. Still not quite flat through Magdwick, but it was enough to get 72.63s, which was almost 2 seconds inside the my record from last year. Matt was a bit slower on this run so it was all to go for in the 3rd and final run. I must admit I relaxed slightly and made a few mistakes, it was still a 73s run, Matt managed to improve to 73.08s but not quite quick enough. What a day, the car was great to drive thoughout. Our thanks to Brighton and Hove Motor Club for putting a well organised event as always.

It was great to see Steve Miles there, I had done a few updates to his software and maps, unfortunately Steve hadn’t been to Goodwood for about 10 years so was quite rusty. He was also having problems with the noise meters, which was off putting. For the final run, he had made another adjustment to his silencer deflector and managed to get round without tripping any of the noise meters and started to get to grips with the circuit again and get some good times. Hopefully Steve can come back and do some more Goodwood events next year and it can be a good fight.

We had been working on the car for 5 years and every time we improved the corner speed by increasing the downforce, we had also increased straight line drag so the net result was, it was faster round the corners but slower down the straights and Goodwood is one of the few circuits, that has the perfect balance of corners and straights that means that you effective go no faster unless you can reduce the drag when downforce is increased. All this is thanks to John Hughes, we are now picking up more top speed with reduced drag yet increasing the downforce at the same time. With the subtle improvements in the geometry set up, we are able to get more and more from the Pirelli tyres.