Jack Goff wins season opener at Brands Hatch
Jack Goff converted pole position into victory to secure honours in the opening race of the new BTCC season at Brands Hatch.
In challenging conditions following overnight rain, Goff saw off the challenge of Colin Turkington to snare his third career win, whilst Andrew Jordan would complete the podium to help West Surrey Racing hit 100 podiums with the BMW 125i M Sport.
Goff held the lead at the start of the race having got away well when the lights went out, with Turkington and fast-starting Andrew Jordan following behind, but the race would soon go behind the Safety Car after an incident going through Surtees.
Running three wide with Sam Tordoff and Matt Neal, Matt Simpson got onto the grass and then spun into Tordoff’s Ford – putting his Eurotech-run car out on the spot with broken suspension.
Whilst Tordoff rejoined before ultimately being forced into the pits, Neal – who had been caught between the two cars when they came together – would only get to the right hander at Clearways before he slid into the gravel, collecting Josh Cook’s Vauxhall in the process and forcing him into the pits.
The Safety Car was deployed to allow damaged cars to be removed from the side of the circuit and when racing resumed, Goff was able to control proceedings from the front only for Turkington to then ramp up the pressure behind.
Although the BMW briefly got up the inside at Clearways on lap 14, Goff was able to maintain his place and then worked hard to put his Civic Type-R in the right place to prevent the former champion from making a move.
Whilst just half a second would cover the top two drivers, Jordan would end up in a lonely third having lost touch with the leading pair after briefly slipping behind the Honda of Dan Cammish.
Cammish ran strongly in the early stages but dropped down the order as the race wore on, with Tom Ingram fighting his way through to fourth in his Speedworks Toyota, and Tom Chilton and Adam Morgan also finding a way ahead of the Honda.
A charging Ash Sutton would demote Cammish down to eighth in the closing laps as he brought his Subaru through the field from 18th on the grid, with the double Porsche champion then beating Chris Smiley’s older-spec Civic in a drag race to the line.
James Cole would complete the top ten in the second of the Motorbase-run Fords.
Aside from Neal and Simpson, Rob Austin’s Alfa Romeo retired with damaged suspension after contact from the Mercedes of Tom Oliphant, whilst the Team HARD Volkswagen of Mike Bushell would be forced back into the pits after the opening lap and failed to reappear.
