WITH three wins from three races on Sunday at the Frankie Boodram International Raceway in Trinidad, Matthew Vieira has credited the performances to confidence and a good team effort.
Speaking to Chronicle Sport yesterday, the rider said that heading into the second round of the race meet, he wasn’t under any pressure. “I had very little intel on the track. I used Google earth and some YouTube videos but I wasn’t pressured because I knew none of the other Guyanese had been there to ride; so we were basically on even terms. That alone made me try to work harder to understand the track,” he said.
He continued, “On qualifying day when I saw the time I was 3rd and I was 5 tenths off first, I was a bit worried because I saw the bike had some handling issues and it was eating up the tyre.”
“However, Andy Phang of Pure Racing chipped in and he did some adjustments to the rear of the bike which made the difference in free practice after qualifying.”
Quizzed about his race confidence, the youngster responded with “we found a great set-up and it gave me the confidence I needed to push the bike so I was comfortable. I put my head down, I fought corner by corner to get to the lead.”
Summing up the circuit, he described it as, “really fast and technical”, adding, “if you mess up the back chicane you basically mess up the whole lap and the corners actually beg you to fly into them.”
Moving forward, the rider said, “Well, I’m in the fight for the championship so I will go to Barbados and try to recover points. My main competition Stephen Vieira and Elliot Vieira will be going there also. The B rider Brook Miller will also be a hard man to beat but I’m going there positive.”
His bike is sponsored by Rio Inn and Cyril’s Taxi Service.