He certainly cut the mustard, did Max Goff, when the French SEAT León Supercopa Championship visited Dijon-Prenois for its third outing of 2011 – but a cruel run of ill-fortune meant the fastest driver in the field over the course of the weekend left with just a single top ten finish to his name.
Having proven to be devastatingly quick but also desperately unlucky in the preceding meeting at Nogaro, car racing rookie Max headed to erstwhile F1 circuit and French Grand Prix venue Dijon hoping that Lady Luck would deign to smile upon him.
After he and the Malcolm Cleland-run Zest Racecar Engineering outfit had focussed their efforts during practice upon trying out different set-up options rather than chasing headlining lap times, the talented young Northants speed demon – an international karting star prior to graduating to cars this year – laid down a marker by lapping fourth-quickest out of the 24 contenders on old tyres in final practice. Not even rain ahead of the all-important qualifying session could throw Max off his stride.
“We were quite confident going into the weekend, because we knew we’d had the pace at Nogaro – we just needed that little bit of good fortune,” the 17-year-old confessed. “Dijon is quite hilly and undulating – definitely a challenge – but it was good fun to drive and we got to grips with it relatively quickly, and after just a couple of sessions we were pretty much already on the pace.
“We went out in qualifying on slick tyres on a damp-but-drying track, and within four laps we were 1.5 seconds quicker than anyone else, so we then came into the pits and sat out the rest of the session – and we still ended up fastest by almost two tenths. That put us into the Superpole session, and we were the only car inside the top ten not to put new tyres on. We went second-quickest, which we were really happy with, as it put us on the front row of the grid for the first race.”
It was a superb effort, and one that preserved Max’s flawless 100 per cent top ten qualifying record in cars to-date – but sadly, just as at Nogaro three weeks earlier, on race day, things began to unravel...
“In the first race, I got a good start and managed to get around the outside of the pole-sitter through the first corner,” recalled the highly-rated Brigstock-based ace, “but then we believe someone had dropped some oil down at the second corner on the formation lap – and when I got to the bottom of the hill there, I completely lost all grip.
“I slid off-track – as did pretty much everyone else inside the top ten – but because I was at the front of the field, I was carrying that little bit extra momentum and speed, which was enough to pitch me into the gravel. We had done so well in qualifying, and we knew we had the pace to win, so for it to all end so abruptly like that due to sheer bad luck left me feeling gutted for everyone at Zest.”
As the first man to approach the scene of the spill and with no warning about the slippery surface, Max was merely a powerless passenger with no opportunity to react, happening upon it all in a literal split-second. Fortunately, however, whilst the overall picture may have been one of carnage for the front-runners, the #81 car suffered only minimal damage – enabling its driver to make the start of race two, albeit from right the way down at the rear of the pack in 23rd place.
“I was so far back, I couldn’t even see the lights!” quipped the MSA Academy member and Loughborough College Elite Athlete, “and because of that, I got jumped off the line by the only driver behind me on the grid. I soon made the position back up again on the run down to the first corner, though, and over the course of the lap I picked off another two or three cars. After that, I just got my head down and concentrated on working my way past them one-by-one.
“It’s quite a narrow circuit which makes it difficult to overtake, but I was able to keep lunging people into the hairpin and I came through to eighth in the end. We were really happy with that; we had been aiming for the top 12, because it’s a competitive field and there were quite a few cars to come through – so to get into the top ten we thought was a brilliant result.
“That also meant that at least I could see the lights in the third race, and I got a really good start. I was sixth going into the first corner and then went around the outside of the driver in fifth. Later around the opening lap, I made a successful lunge to take fourth – and then I got my head down and began reeling in the three leaders. Four or five laps in, I got onto the back of third place – and then my tyre let go! Luckily, it happened as the wheel was unloaded, so it was just a case of pulling off to the side of the track rather than a big accident.”
One of the few instances of good luck from which Max benefitted over the Dijon weekend, it nonetheless meant that from a meeting that could arguably have yielded a trio of victories, the former Monaco Kart Cup winner left with but a solitary eighth place to his name, and having slipped from third to fifth in the chase for the coveted crown. On the positive side, he was clearly the class of the field once again, his potential is palpable – and as soon as his fortunes turn around, he could just be untouchable.
“It was gutting, really, to come through from the very back in race two to what looked like it would have been a strong podium – or maybe even a win – in race three only to have another DNF,” he mused in conclusion. “It’s still just my first year of car racing, though, so the team is quite happy that we’re on the leading pace – and there’s no real pressure now that we’ve dropped a little way down the championship table. We’re simply going to take it race-by-race from here, hope for a change of luck in the remaining rounds – and see where we end up.”
