So we have reached the half way point in the season now that Oulton Park has been and I have had some ups and downs. It was a shame to start the year off with a DNF at Brands Hatch but since then I have bounced back with 4 podiums and 3 back to back in the last 3 races.

Friday testing was so hot, with the temperature reaching 26 degrees. I started to wish I hadn’t gone for a matt black car this year

Session 1

I used the first session to re familiarise myself with the Clio after having last driven a rear wheel drive Lotus Elise. I got into a good rhythm straight away and started the first session off in P2. When we put a slightly better set of tyres on near the end to set a time I unfortunately didn’t get the best out of them and ended up in P7 at the flag.

After looking at the data between sessions I realised where I had lost a few tenths of a second and was confident on putting that right in FP2.

Session 2

The temperature had cooled slightly for the second session but was still in the 20′s. I felt much more at home in the second session and straight away focused on getting my head down and getting some decent times and i ended up in P3 and feeling good for qualifying.

Saturday

Qualifying:

It was very warm again on Saturday so me and the team decided we needed to get the best out of our new tyres fairly soon after bolting them on. Unfortunately on both runs on my new tyres I hit traffic which meant the best had gone from them.

I had to then take a deep breath and give it one last go on them and as I crossed the line at the flag I improved my time by a few hundredths of a second which was enough to put me P3 for Both races.

This was my best qualifying position to date and I knew that I usually make good starts so this with the fact I was on the inside I was feeling confident for the races.

Race 1:

I made a pretty decent start and got past Tom Grice going into the first corner, although James Colbourn had made an even better start and managed to get past and dropped me back to third.

As far as clio racing goes this wasn’t the most exciting race, because everyone is so close on times unless someone makes a mistake it’s very hard to overtake. The only issue I had was that I had a few handling issues through Cascades which was stopping me from being able to get a good run to the hairpin to make a move for P2.

I kept my head though and brought the car home in a solid 3rd place.

Sunday

Race 2 :

The forecast had been correct and a very different looking sky greeted us Sunday morning with rain showers predicted all day. I was feeling quietly confident with these conditions though as we always go well in the wet and Team Pyro have a brilliant set up.

So starting from 3rd on the grid again I made a brilliant start getting ahead of Paul Rivett going into turn 1, this allowed me to attack James Dixon for the lead. I felt I was much faster than James in the early laps so I knew I had to get past.

Going onto lap 2 I took my chance and went down the inside of him into turn 1. After this I made sure that i got my head down and tried to pull a gap on the rest of the pack.

I was a bit shocked when I looked in my mirrors and realised how much of a gap I had after about 5 laps, but I knew it was far from over and in these conditions its so easy to make a mistake and go off the track.

I counted the laps down one by one and managed the gap and brought the car home in P1!!!!

What a mega feeling to win my first Clio Cup race and to top it off I won the Graduate Cup and I was awarded with the driver of the weekend award too. The only problem is now I have the taste for it I want to do it again. So roll on croft

I just want to say a huge thanks to all of my sponsors and supporters who made it so special! And of course all my family and friends who put in so much hard work behind the scenes , so thanks guys.

Jack Goff

Photo Credit: Davai Goosey