Check the bolts on that thing after every track day because cheap aluminum flexes differently than steel and the mounting points take a beating. Most people don't think about what happens at the shock tower itself, since these braces transfer load instead of just stiffening things. If the bar is bolted to sheet metal that was never meant to carry that kind of stress, you can crack the tower over time and that's way worse than some body flex. The front end feeling tighter could be the brace, or it could be that you just got more seat time and learned the line better. Summit Point turn 3 is tricky and confidence there comes fast once you know the track. Take a good look at the welds and the tower metal every oil change just to be safe.

Skill wins and its not close. Rick never had to pay a guy for 3 months while he learned which end of a board to cut, so of course attitude sounds great to him, he wasnt eating the cost. A guy with a good attitude and no skill will smile at you while the job falls behind and the client walks. You can teach a lazy guy to still show up and do the work if he wants the check bad enough, but you cant teach a guy who has never framed a wall how to frame one in the time it takes a job to go south. Attitude gets you through the interview, skill gets you through the job.