Jack Goff ended British Touring Car Championship qualifying at Rockingham with mixed emotions, despite securing a best-ever grid slot.
Goff posted the fourth fastest time during the 30-minute session to secure a personal-best qualifying position, and was promoted to third after Gordon Shedden was penalised for a pitlane infringement.
But while the Triple Eight Racing driver was satisfied with a row two grid slot for today’s opening race, he was left ruing an error which he felt had cost him a quicker lap.
“I made a bit of a mistake,” admitted Goff, before news of Shedden’s penalty. “Sector two is just before you turn into the chicane and on the radio they called me in, [but] as I crossed sector two I went purple by a tenth on my best lap so it should have put me P3.
“Shedden pipped me by three-thousandths which is hardly anything, but I’m on the better side of the grid now so we should be okay.”
Given the speed that he had shown despite his error Goff remained upbeat about his race day chances, but steered clear of a bold prediction having missed the opportunity to carry out a race run thanks in part to a damp track in first practice.
“To start the weekend off on the right foot is always a positive. The car has always been strong here in qualifying but I haven’t tested here so going into Race One, we haven’t done a race distance so we’re going in blind.
“It’s good being the best qualifying of my career but at the same time I think we were in with a good shot at the front row,” he continued. “But I’ve taken the positives from it; we’re near the front, hopefully we should be away from some of the carnage and be able to go and get a decent lap time in the first race.”