Jack Goff was satisfied with an equal-best points haul of the season at Croft as the Team IHG Rewards Club driver claimed a hat-trick of top ten finishes to pull himself back into the championship battle.
One-time race winner Goff enjoyed a strong weekend behind the wheel of the BMW 125i M-Sport and was unlucky not to challenge for the victory in the second contest around the 2.13 mile Yorkshire circuit.
After qualifying a mere 0.450 seconds adrift of pole-sitter Colin Turkington in sixth, Goff worked his way through to fourth and was deprived of a podium finish by impressive MG rookie and eventual race three winner, Ashley Sutton. Despite putting the MG6 GT under serious pressure for the entire race distance, Goff ultimately had to settle for fourth.
Race two was, perhaps, the most frustrating contest of all for the fans favourite. As Subaru team-mates Turkington and Jason Plato clashed whilst disputing the lead, the BMW pair of Goff and Collard caught up the duo at a rapid rate. Goff was forced to brake to avoid a collision on the outside line, whilst Collard was able to streak up the inside of all three and claim the lead, which he held until the chequered flag.
The third and final contest saw Goff’s first competitive wet-weather running in the rear-wheel drive BMW, and he held his own within the top ten to secure ninth and complete a strong weekends work.
As a result, Goff now sits 5th overall in the Drivers standings, 38 points adrift of WSR team-mate, Sam Tordoff, whilst Team IHG Rewards Club are now the leading single-car entry in the HiQ Teams Championship.
Commenting on the weekend, Goff was pleased to have closed the deficit in the standings to Tordoff and conceded a lot of lessons have been learnt for the future.
“It’s been a good weekend for myself and Team IHG Rewards Club,” he summarised.
“I’ve equalled my best points haul of the season, moved up three places to fifth in the championship and closed the gap to the championship lead.”
“I was very pleased to get fourth in the opening race from sixth on the grid and in the second race I was lying third and unfortunately had to brake to avoid the leaders when they crashed into each other and ended up losing a place, so I finished fourth again.”
“I’ve never raced a rear-wheel drive touring car in the wet before so ninth was OK in the final race, and has definitely given me a lot of learnings for next time.”
The British Touring Car Championship reconvenes after its annual summer break at Snetterton over the last weekend of July [30th-31st] for the sixth triple header of the season.