WIX Racing with Eurotech’s Jack Goff is aiming for his fourth pole position of the 2018 British Touring Car Championship season for this weekend’s Brands Hatch GP triple-header.
Goff ended both practice sessions in third position this morning [29 September], with a late effort in the second session just 0.085s adrift of Dan Cammish’s benchmark time.
He told TouringCars.Net that it’s “difficult” to establish his true pace against rivals after practice, but that pole position is certainly the aim this afternoon.
“It’s difficult to say, because it’s only practice,” said Goff.
“You don’t get any points for practice, but you do for qualifying, so if we can go a few places higher in qualifying we’ll be pretty happy.”
After securing pole position at the first round of the championship in April, then doubling up in both qualifying sessions at Snetterton, Goff is keen to score his fourth pole this weekend.
“Both qualifying sessions where everyone has had zero ballast we’ve been on pole,” he said.
“It’s nice ticking that box but unfortunately that doesn’t win you the championship.
“The real points come on Sunday but we’ll certainly be aiming for another pole position this weekend.
We’ve got three so far this year which I don’t think anyone can beat now which is one nice thing, but certain weekends we haven’t scored any points and that’s what cost us the championship.”
After such a close qualifying session at Silverstone last time out – with the top 28 cars separated by just over eight tenths – Goff notes the importance of pushing but making no mistakes in qualifying.
“You make one mistake and lose a tenth of a second, you could go wrong P2 to P12 so it’s very competitive.
“We know that, that’s what is so great about touring cars. We’ve had 16 different winners this year, I don’t know many other championships that have had 16 different winners in a season.
“It’s testament to the regulations, and the teams for getting all the cars to be at the top of their game.”
As Goff currently sits eighth in the standings, his championship position is of little importance to him, with the focus on winning races tomorrow.
“If you win everything then you obviously win other stuff. Our first challenge is to get pole position, if we can get that and win the first race, happy days,” he said.
“We’ll see what the rest of the day brings. We can still come mathematically P2 in the championship but realistically I think we’re ten or eleven points from P4 so that’ll be our aim going in tomorrow.”