Jack Goff expects to struggle to defend from Ash Sutton despite having pole position for the second British Touring Car Championship race at Snetterton.
The WIX Racing with Eurotech driver edged out the reigning Champion by a tenth of a second in a near-dead heat in the opening contest.
That came after Sutton’s Subaru Levorg GT made a lightning start from the fifth row to seize second and reduced Goff’s advantage of 3.1 seconds at half-distance to virtually nil in the closing stages.
The result – Goff’s second victory of 2018 – moves him up into third in the standings, but also hands him the full quota of 75 kilograms of success ballast for the second race in Norfolk, which is also anticipated to be wet.
Speaking to TouringCars.net, Goff believes – contrary to wider belief in the paddock – that the weight will make a big difference to his Honda Civic Type R despite the levelling factor of the rain.
“Everyone seems to think it wouldn’t, but I think it will. When you have a moment, which is more likely in the wet, it takes you longer to get going, so I think it’ll make a bigger difference, to be honest,” he explained.
“I think it’ll be very unlikely to beat Ash off the line, which is unfortunate, but I know that my pace will hopefully be at the start of the race so we can put an attack on him.”
An understanding of the Subaru’s strengths in cornering speeds could prove helpful to the Honda Civic Type R racer, and paid dividends in managing their clash at the end of Race 1.
“We have a litte bit of an advantage in a straight line over the Subaru, but at the same time I know where their massive advantages are and that’s in mid-corner speeds, you could see that – he was able to close sixth tenths per lap in the last sector on me.
“It’s the centre of gravity. It’s lower down, especially in the wet it helps. I knew where my advantage was, I could get the cut back on him and get the power down, that’d be OK.”
Reflecting on his dramatic clash with Sutton, Goff admitted defending on the inside of corners was affecting his grip levels, but knew that traction out of the final corner could make the difference.
“If that race had been about two laps shorter I’d have been happier, it was basically a repeat of 2017 in that it was me against Ash [Sutton] away from everyone else,” he said.
“With two laps to go he started to catch me, but I wasn’t going to let him have it two years in a row! I stuck my elbows out, he went around the outside at Coram and, to be fair, in the wet that’s where the grip was, and I started to have over steer because I was on the inside trying to defend on the exit of Bomb Hole.
“We rubbed wing mirrors quite a few times through there, in fifth gear you’re on the edge of your seat. He dropped a wheel on the exit and I knew if I could get the traction off the corner [there was a chance]. I just got the run on him.”
Goff was also pleased to manage the wet conditions to perfection, despite a lack of running in similar conditions during free practice.
“Being the first car to every corner, I didn’t know where the water was or have anyone to follow – I was the one making tracks in the rain.
“It’s always interesting – I didn’t do any running in the wet yesterday either – the most important thing is we’re still on the top step.”
The second race of the weekend gets underway at 13:50 BST.