Jack Goff was pleased to claim pole position for the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Snetterton, although the Eurotech Racing driver remained circumspect in his delight, saying he has more time to find in second qualifying.
Goff put his Honda on pole position by less than a tenth of a second ahead of Honda’s Dan Cammish, setting a new qualifying lap record in the process.
But the 27-year-old was cautious in his celebrations, admitting that he could have found more time in his car in the half-hour session.
“It is a good start, but we weren’t perfect with the car that time – it was actually better in FP2, when we had old tyres,” said Goff to TouringCars.Net. “We should have gone another two tenths quicker in theory, because everyone else went quicker.
“On that basis we should have a little bit of time to find. We’ve got a little bit of ballast in the car, so I’m looking forward to the second qualifying session when no-one has ballast.
“It was OK – it’s nice to get pole position as you get one point for that, but tomorrow is the important day.”
Goff believes that following up his pole with another top time in second qualifying will be a challenge, especially as some of his title rivals stand to lose more ballast than he does.
“We’ve got people around us, who are quite close to us – about four tenths off in qualifying, who will have 66 kg less in their car. OK, it will make 27 kg difference to us, because we’ve got some ballast to take out as well, but they’re going to find a fair bit of time.
“We need to make sure we find some time and not leave anything on the table.”
Goff is expecting the BMW of Colin Turkington to be the main challenger for top honours in the ‘diamond double’ race three on Sunday, even though the Northern Irishman qualified in just 15th for race one.
“He’ll be up there, 100%,” added Goff. “He’s got 75 kg and lugging that around makes a big difference, especially at the hairpin with the stop and start.
“If you look at the top lot [in first qualifying], none of us have got massive ballast. I’ve got 27 kg and [Tom] Ingram’s got 66 kg, but after that [not much].
“But Colin will come through with the rear-wheel drive, and that’s the thing we’ve got to think of for tomorrow’s long-distance race.
“We’re not the favoured car really, even if we put it on pole. You’ve got rear-wheel drive cars that just through physics are going to be better than us over a long distance.
“Yes, I’m happy, but I can’t get too happy yet as I want to go and do it again in qualifying two!
“I don’t think we’ve got much chance in the double distance, so we need to make sure we get at least two podiums in the first two races.
“I want to win the first one, maximise that with a decent result in the second one, and then if we can win the front-wheel drive race in the last race then happy days.
“It’s going to be tricky, but that’s my excuses out of the way!”