Jack Goff said Eurotech Racing can take ‘massive positives’ from their pace in the most recent Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship meeting at Donington.
The 2012 Renault UK Clio Cup champion qualified on the front row of the grid in only his second meeting with the Independent Honda outfit, but was forced to recover lost ground after a frenetic opening race at Donington.
“It was damage limitation for much of the day”, Goff told The Checkered Flag, lamenting incidents that set him back in the pack on Sunday. “We had a great Saturday, then Sunday came around and it all went wrong as early as turn one.”
Nose-to-tail contact between Toyota Avensis rivals Rob Austin and Tom Ingram heading into the first corner of the opening race left Goff’s Honda with little room to take advantage of on the outside, before contact with Gordon Shedden‘s Dynamics-run Civic sent the Eurotech man through the gravel at Mcleans.
Marred down the field, Goff set about recovering lost ground and added a brace of top-10 finishes to his 12th place in race one, leaving with positive feelings of the Swindon-engined Civic Type-R.
“I was on the outside and soon had nowhere to go at the first corner because of the concertina effect on the inside”, he added. “Later in the lap I was pushed wide and through the gravel, which dropped me to 20th.
“You’re playing catch-up from there. I got back to P12, then P9 and finally back up to sixth in that last race, so to move forward and further up in the championship are still positives.
“The good news is that we’ve got pace at the sharp end. That’s a massive positive for us.”
Goff enters the third meeting at Thruxton in May sixth in the championship, hoping for a trouble-free weekend in Hampshire to trim his 40-point deficit to Ingram.
“The car should be quick”, he said. “We just need to get through without one bad race ruining our weekend this time. Even with weight in the car it should be fine around Thruxton.”
Photos: BTCC Media
