Jack Goff has taken pole in the final dramatic qualifying session of 2017 which was twice interrupted by red flags and saw championship contender Colin Turkington sidelined with technical issues.
Just thirty cars took to the track at the start of the session. After the big shunt between Rob Collard and Will Burns at Silverstone, Burns or his car were not fit to compete this weekend. Rob Collard’s car had been fixed and he took part in practice but withdrew before qualifying after medical advice as it appears his injuries are not yet healed enough for him to drive safely.
The session started with rain falling and a damp track. Goff’s Eurotech team mate, Brett Smith went off right at the start of the session bringing out the first red flag. It was a gutting end to the qualifying for Smith who had been right on the pace, heading second practice in a Eurotech one-two. Almost as soon as the session restarted, Turkington’s car had mechanical dramas with the engine misfiring as he took to the track. He returned to the pits where the team seemed unable to fix the issue with the engine, which now refused to fire up at all. The team did eventually fix the issue, helped by the delay for the second red flag later, but Turkington was left with little time to set a lap, leaving him just seventeenth on the grid;
“Obviously it was a very difficult session for the whole team. Rob [Collard] unfortunately didn’t get out, and then we found a problem on my car on the very first lap which forced us back into the pits for a long time.
Thankfully, the boys managed to resolve the problem, but it left me with very little opportunity to set a representative lap time. As usual, we improved the car throughout free practice and qualifying, but the most frustrating thing is there is so much more pace still sitting in it – we just needed a few more laps to release a bit more time. On the positive side, I’m 17th instead of 30th, so at least I’m halfway up the grid but it obviously isn’t where we should be. We just need to reset now. The points are handed out tomorrow, not today, so it’s better that this happens now and whilst it’s always tough to make progress through the field, this is far from over.”
The other contender, Ash Sutton by contrast had a near perfect session in his Adrian Flux Subaru Levorg, running second behind Jack Goff for much of it, he eventually ended up third after Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat set a late flyer in his Mercedes A-class.
Sutton was happy with third, particularly with rival Turkington being well behind;
“That couldn’t have gone any better for us, especially with the 14 place deficit to Colin [Turkington]. The team were making me aware of that gap but they came over the radio though and said I needed four more tenths! You can never leave anything on the table and I was pushing. The start of the session was a complete write off with the weather and changing tyres over so with less than half a session to go at, it wasn’t a bad result.
The car and Adrian Flux Subaru Racing have done me proud and I owe a lot to Jason who was towing me around. The 75kgs of success ballast hinder us and having that draft counteracts the ballast at least. It’s going to be a hunt for points. I know Colin’s more than capable of pushing up the order but I’ll be concentrating on my own race – I don’t need to do anything silly.”
Moffat was very happy with his front row effort;
“It’s a nice change to be up at the right end of the grid after the last few qualifying sessions! Some of that has been down to bad luck, some has been small issues and some has been the driver not performing! The car felt brilliant; the Mercedes is always amazing round here. I want to thank the Laser Tools boys and the Ciceley crew for giving me a great car as always at this event. I always feel confident coming to Brands GP and we managed to put the lap together.”
Moffat counts JSCC driver Charlotte Birch amongst his supporters and she was present to see him take his second place.
Goff was happy with his third pole of the season but knows a race win might not be so easy;
“These boys at Eurotech Racing have given me three poles and Jeff (Smith) one – that’s more than anybody else on the grid and the Honda Civic Type R was fantastic. Being where we were in practice, we knew we had a quick car in the dry and when the rain came down, we thought our hard work was going to go to waste. We’re fully aware of a fast-starting rear-wheel drive Subaru around us but we’ll see what we can do. I’ve got nothing to lose. We’ve got the Independents’ to fight for but to go for that title, I need to go out and try and get the win here.”
The second red flag delay was caused by MG’s Josh Cook who crashed at the final corner when his steering broke.
Behind the top three came Rob Austin in the Handy Motorsport Toyota in fourth just ahead of Tom Chilton’s Powermaxed Vauxhall Astra. Chilton, who was forced to sit out Silverstone on medical grounds (where he was replaced by Rob Huff), has come back strongly. Matt Neal was the best of the two manufacturer backed Honda’s in sixth with Tom Ingram, the independent championship leader in seventh for Speedworks. Ingram’s nearest rival is Goff on pole so the battle between those two could get interesting on race day. Local favourite Jake Hill was next up for Team Hard/Rolec Racing in his VW CC with Adam Morgan’s Cicely Mercedes and Jason Plato’s Subaru completing the top ten.
Large crowds are expected on race day for the finale, despite the possibility of rain. Tickets are available on the gate if you wish to join them or you can watch the whole thing live on ITV4 as usual.
The main title battle is looking less close now with Turkington’s nightmare qualifying but it would only take a bad race one for Sutton to open things right out again. The title could still go to either of the contenders.
Qualifying – Brands Hatch GP
1 Jack GOFF (GBR) Eurotech Racing 1m30.802s (96.47mph)
2 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +0.357s
3 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +0.363s
4 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +0.459s
5 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +0.481s
6 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.487s
7 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +0.502s
8 Jake HILL (GBR) TAG Racing +0.505s
9 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Ciceley Motorsport +0.530s
10 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +0.543s
11 Dave NEWSHAM (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +0.612s
12 Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +0.615s
13 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +0.653s
14 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Simpson Racing +0.699s
15 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +0.699s
16 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +0.790s
17 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +0.796s
18 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) BMW Pirtek Racing +0.807s
19 Chris SMILEY (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +0.834s
20 Michael EPPS (GBR) TAG Racing +0.871s
21 Aron TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +0.891s
22 Ant WHORTON-EALES (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +0.891s
23 James COLE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +0.901s
24 Josh PRICE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +1.209s
25 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +1.406s
26 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +1.429s
27 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +1.638s
28 Stewart LINES (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +2.979s
29 Josh COOK (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance NO TIME
30 Brett SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing NO TIME By Marc Waller
