Victory in Monaco for Goff

Max Goff has confirmed his status as one of the biggest stars on the international karting scene, by stunning the opposition to triumph in the prestigious CIK-FIA Monaco Kart Cup on only his first visit to the Principality.

The Brigstock ace – who has already proven his talent this year by finishing second in BRDC Stars of Tomorrow and outscoring every one of his 90 rivals in the second half of the Italian Open Masters campaign – was one of 36 KF3 drivers to take part in the invitation-only race, but having never been there before he knew it would be no stroll in the park.

“The track was amazing,” enthused Max, at 13 also one of the youngest drivers competing. “It’s a street circuit, and it’s very tight which means you have to concentrate really hard, just like they do in Formula 1.

“We only had two practice sessions, so you don’t get very much testing time. It took me about a session to learn the track, and from there we just tried to get the kart set up for the weekend.

“It was tough, because quite a few of the other drivers had been to the track before and with so little practice time it was quite hard to get to grips with it. In the first practice session Olly Rowland was about nine tenths of a second quicker than anyone else purely because he knew the circuit.”

McLaren and Mercedes-Benz Young Driver Support Programme member Rowland – runner-up at Monaco in 2006 – was just one name amongst a field of the highest calibre, also including former British Junior Karting Champion and reigning Kartmasters king Jack Harvey, star of both the domestic and overseas stage Jordon Lennox-Lamb and the cream of the European crop. In such elevated company, to twice qualify ninth in his group and 16th overall as Max did was no mean feat, though the heat races did not run entirely to plan.

“I started eleventh in both my heats,” he recounted, “but in the first one I got caught up in an accident with several other karts right at the start. I managed to get through it, though, and came out about 15th from where I fought my way back through to ninth which was fairly satisfying.

“The second heat wasn’t too good. On the last lap Jordon had contact with Mitchell Hale in the final hairpin, which we later discovered had snapped Jordon’s trackrod. I was behind and got a run on Jordon heading towards the line. I moved to the left but because he couldn’t turn I got sandwiched into the barrier and thrown out of the kart. Fortunately we had already crossed the line at that point so I was classified ninth, but the kart was written off.”

While the results were not what he had ideally been looking for, Max knew under the circumstances it could have been a lot worse, and he began the pre-final from tenth on the grid. Though he would crash out of seventh place, leaving him down in 30th on the grid for the all-important grand final, he displayed few ill-effects from his second heat ejector seat moment, and remained confident of a strong finish.

“We were hoping to get into the top ten,” he said, “because the track is so tight that it’s hard to overtake. I got a good start and a few crashes ahead played to our advantage. That brought the yellow-and-black flags out, which backed everyone up again.

“I was in twelfth position at the time, and I picked everyone off from there to win. We just finally managed to pull everything together, and I got the fastest lap of the weekend too.”

Beating Harvey into second place and home favourite Brandon Maisano into third, Max was understandably thrilled at the result, particularly as it had come so dramatically against the odds.

“It was my first time in Monaco,” he added, “and the whole place is just amazing with the track next to all the yachts. There was quite a big crowd there as well – everything was completely unreal.”

Who knows, if he goes on to achieve his F1 ambition, Max may just find himself receiving another trophy there from Prince Albert a few years down the line. On present form, you wouldn’t want to bet against it.

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website