Team HARD’s Jack Goff says it’s a “great feeling” to reward his team with their first British Touring Car Championship victory after holding on despite contending with next-to-no visibility in the closing laps at Silverstone.
The four-time BTCC winner pitted at the end of the green flag lap to switch to wet tyres in what proved to be an inspired move, catching up to the rear of the pack when the safety car was deployed to recover Matt Simpson’s stricken Honda Civic.
He and fellow wet-shod runner Aiden Moffat then battled it out before the latter spun on the exit of Copse, handing Goff an advantage he did not relinquish in the closing stages.
He told TouringCars.Net it felt fitting to secure the Kent-based outfits first BTCC victory after securing his maiden series podium in the final race at Brands Hatch GP in 2013 with them.
“It is a great feeling, not just for me but for the team – they’ve been in this game for a long time – to be able to get their first win for them is fantastic,” said Goff.
“I got my first ever podium for Team HARD back in 2013 in the wet funnily enough, and we’ve done it again this time.
“We were on the right tyre obviously, but a lot of other people were and we had good pace so it was good.
“But I wouldn’t be on the track if it wasn’t for Team HARD at the start of the year, so it’s thanks to them and all of the sponsors who make it possible.”
Goff also outlined the visibility issues he had in the closing stages, where he was forced to drive looking out of a hole in the windscreen as the rest of it had steamed up.
“With 10 laps to go, my windscreen completely steamed up because my header came off the windscreen, which then left holes where the lifting hooks are,” he said.
“So I had water pouring through the windscreen, and the windscreen was steaming up. I was literally driving through a 50p hole down my wingmirror for the final ten laps.
“I was asking the team to just tell me if anyone was catching me because I needed to know and then I would have started to push harder.
“But they told me I was all good and I just brought it home.”
Goff continued to say he was happy to repay the team for the faith they showed in his late call-up to join the squad before the season opener at Brands Hatch.
“They took a gamble putting me in the car at the start of the year, so to be able to repay them with a win – not just a podium – is just brilliant,” Goff said.
“We’ve had a few situations this year where we haven’t quite had the rub of the green, not to win races or get podiums but to get well within the top ten.
“That would then put you in the draw for the reverse-grid, and things just haven’t gone our way.
“For that one time, things did go our way and it’s nice to be able to finish it off.”
The win easily marks Goff’s best result of the year – his previous best being 10th in the opening Thruxton contest – but outlined that the lack of success before today hadn’t been through lack of trying.
“I haven’t tried any less this year. I have tried as hard as any other year, maybe even harder at some points,” he said.
“To get a little bit of champagne makes it all worth it.”