Despite scoring his best results of the season last weekend [13th-14th August] at Knockhill, Jack Goff felt frustrated after a number of incidents hampered the progress of the Team IHG Rewards Club BMW across the weekend.
Saturday heralded a best-ever qualifying position of fourth for the BRDC Superstar, with a lap time of 51.567 seconds around the challenging 1.27 mile circuit just 0.046 seconds adrift of eventual pole-sitter Jason Plato.
With less success ballast on board, some sublime driving by the fans favourite in the formative stages of the weekend’s opening race saw him overtake championship leader and WSR team-mate Sam Tordoff, before dispatching Tom Ingram’s struggling Toyota and plying the pressure on race leader Plato right to the chequered flag.
The addition of success ballast to his BMW 125i M-Sport made the challenges far greater, but Goff cemented his position in the standings with a further two strong points finishes in 7th and 10th, despite falling into the clutches of the midfield in the final race after contact with Rob Austin.
The main positive for Goff to take from the weekend, as far as championships are concerned, is that Team IHG Rewards Club now sit as the leading single-car outfit in the HiQ Teams Championship, having relieved WIX Racing of that honour after the triple-header in Fife. His points also ensure that WSR retain their lead over Honda, Subaru and MG in the Manufacturers standings.
Reflecting on the weekend, Goff felt there had been more to come from the car in terms of performance, and whilst he acknowledged it had been a good weekend from a results point of view, he felt there had been even more on offer if circumstances had gone his way.
“Today has been a bit of a rollercoaster, which it shouldn’t have been, as the Team IHG Rewards Club BMW was really quick and the team have worked so hard to make it that way.” explained Goff.
“To get my best result of the year in Race One was very good. I knew that with ballast Race Two would be harder, but Race Three looked good until I was passed by Rob Austin under yellow flags and then just run off the road by him at the next corner.”
“I dropped to 13th, but the fact that I was able to climb back to 10th shows what speed the car had here. It’s quite frustrating.”
With just three meetings left to run in this years British Touring Car Championship, the series heads next to Rockingham Motor Speedway on the outskirts of Corby, Northamptonshire, for another action-packed triple-header over the weekend of 27th-28th August 2016.
For Goff, three strong results will see him remain within the realms of the championship battle heading to the final two events at Silverstone and Brands Hatch, but equally misfortune could see him drop out at this late stage, in what is definitely the closest title fight in recent seasons.