Jack Goff: “We’re up against it”

Jack Goff admits that Team HARD has been “up against it” through the first half of the BTCC season and that he has paid the price for the late nature of his deal to join the Volkswagen squad.

Having lost his drive with Eurotech when the team elected to withdraw from the series, Goff looked set to spend 2019 on the sidelines before an unexpected chance came along to join Tony Gilham’s squad after the departure of Mike Bushell.

With no pre-season testing aside from the media launch event at Brands Hatch, Goff has so far managed just three points finishes but heads into race day at Oulton Park hoping to add to his tally having qualified inside the top 15 – despite missing much of FP2 with a mechanical issue.

However, the 28-year-old admitted that it might be after the summer break before he is able to really push forwards up the order, with the two-day test at Snetterton being viewed as key to the ongoing development of the Volkswagen.

“Being in the top 15 means we’re half-way up the grid and we are working hard to improve things,” he said. “Losing FP2 didn’t help as we had a plan of things to do to develop the car and couldn’t work through it, which means we are a session behind where we should have been. However, we’re in a position to race for points and it’s better than being down towards the back.

“It’s been a tricky season so far and we have been up against it. If I’d come into the new season with no testing in the Honda I drove for the last few years I wouldn’t have worried, as we could have rolled the car out of the truck and would have been near where we needed to be. However, I went into round one with a car that the team will admit wasn’t the quickest last year, and we’ve had to work to try and move it forwards on race weekends.

“It’s hard to develop things when you are working like that and the two-day test at Snetterton in the summer break will be important so that we can get some decent running in and work through a lot of stuff to unlock more pace in the car. We’re slowly learning what makes it tick but we need to do it quicker, and the test will give us chance to do that.

“We’re not here to make up the numbers and want to be racing for the top six and the podium. We all have the same goal and are working hard behind the scenes to achieve it.”