Electric mod on a Brinkman Gourmet

Bruno gave me an electric element to try on my Brinkman Gourmet smoker. It's the green one with the dorr on the side. Anyway the elemet unit sits on a metal disk. It say's on the box that it is for the Brinkman and the Cajun Cooker with the open bottom. My Gourmet does not have the open bottom. It has the bottom with legs little short legs, then another pan that set in the bottom that has quarter size holes around the inside towards the top lip and slits in the bottom for air flow as there is a space between this and the bottom piece. There is a grate for the coals that sits on top of the pan with the slits and holes. Anyway I took the metal pan with the slits in it and made one of the quarter size holes n the side big enough for me to thread the power cord for the electric element throug it so the element and the disk now sets right in the lip space that the grate sets. Then the cord was threaded through the bottom of the smoker, the part with the legs and out a hole that was already in the center of the bottom. I put the water pan in, top food grate and set my remote thermometer on teh grate with the probe through a potatoe. It's been on now for over an hour and the temp at the probe has been rock steady at 198 degrees.

There is a questions here. Because the disk that the element is mounted to sets exactly where the grate was to sit, and it's now sealed itself from the pan that has the slits and holes for ventalation, am I going to not have enough draft from the bottom to the top? Shoud I drill some holes in the disk that the element sets on to increase draft or is it really necessary?

Anybody have any esperience with this?