Eurotech Racing’s Jack Goff was delighted to convert his pole position into a race one win, in spite of relentless pressure from WSR’s Colin Turkington.
While Goff described winning round one as a “brilliant feeling,” he told TouringCars.net that the victory is the first element of a season-long championship challenge.
“It’s nice to get the first win but I’m fully aware there’s 29 races to go yet,” said Goff. “That was the first piece of the jigsaw.
“We need to make sure we put a full championship together. First thing is two more good races today – keep our nose clean and see where we end up.”
After Colin Turkington leapfrogged Sam Tordoff at the start, it was a race-long battle between him and polesitter Goff.
Around mid-distance, Turkington came extremely close to taking the lead at Clearways, as Goff lost the rear end of his Honda Civic Type R and ran wide.
But he managed to hand on, finding traction on the outside, and enjoyed his battle with two-time champion.
“Colin’s a fair racer. I like to think I am as well,” said Goff.
“So we give each other a lot of respect but at the same time we push hard so I knew I couldn’t make too many mistakes.
“But I made that one tiny little error where I ran slightly wide and he got his nose alongside but I made sure I didn’t do it again.”
Goff will now start the second race with maximum ballast, but is positive despite no experience with full weight in the car.
“I don’t think it will make us too much slower hopefully.
“I haven’t done 75 kilos in the wet so it’s going to be a little bit of an unknown but we’ll see.
We’ll take it as it comes, get it off the line well and keep clean again for the first few laps.”