.
Matt was having to brake noticeably earlier than both Alister and myself, and the car does not appear to handle as well as the cars with lighter engines / gearboxes.
Matt’s car weighed 724 kgs before he replaced the screen with a perspex one, so the braking should be as good as anyones… As Bernard said - he is still a novice, and the tyres had been badly flatspotted by Ryan
(having qualified at the back)?
We only had a few minutes to cure the misfire, and that included resetting the throttle pot sensor on the Emerald, and then finding new coil packs…
Qualifying had started, and in the dry, and after five minutes we were still working… as Matt drove out of the garage it started raining, and by the time he had come round to start his first flying lap it was pssng down - bummer !! His qualifying time was one minute 58 or something similar, but in the race he did a one minute 18…
When I drove the car at Snetterton earlier this year, the handling was not bad, but then we had a leaking rear damper at Mallory, now repaired, and whilst trying to compensate for that we dramatically changed the rear ride height, and it hasn’t been properly reset yet, so the downforce and handling is still some way off, as quite correctly diagnosed by Mark !!!
Matt was lapping in 1 20. something, whilst defending the line and taking extra care not to go off on the oil leading up to the chicane, but eventually he missed a gear and Al got by…
That was when Matt got going, and immediately cut 2 seconds a lap off by braking later and pushing harder…
It’s going to be a great season, especially if I can get my car ready to rock as well !!!
I get back from Italy the day before Thruxton, so I hope I can be there