Win for Goff at Val Vibrata

Rising young karting star Max Goff has signed off his Italian campaign in style, by seeing off some of the top drivers from both Britain and Europe to claim a victory and second place in the final round at Val Vibrata in the Abruzzo.

The Brigstock ace went into the meeting having to learn the circuit from scratch and up against some 89 rivals, only 68 of whom would make the grade to be able to race. It did not take him long to get up-to-speed.

“The competition was really hard,” Max confirmed, “with about 15 drivers who all had a shot at winning. The track was tough to learn too; it’s quite complicated with lots of double-apex corners, but a lot of fun to drive. By the last session on the Friday we were quite fast – sixth overall on the timesheets – and we just progressed from there.”

Indeed, despite wisely saving his tyres throughout the heats, the 13-year-old nevertheless produced a trio of top five finishes to put him on the second row of the grid for the opening final.

“I got a good start and got up to third,” he explained, “then across the line for the first time I got into second but the leader had pulled out a bit of a gap. I started to reel him in and in so doing pulled out a margin over the drivers behind me. Then the guy leading seized his engine and I was able to win by four seconds.

“In the second final I started from pole. I got a good start and pulled away a bit, but Tom Grice caught me up and managed to get past and we didn’t quite have enough to take the fight back to him again. I could probably have had a go but it would have been risky and I didn’t want to mess anything up.”

There was certainly no shame in finishing runner-up to the man who had utterly dominated the prestigious European qualifying meeting in France just a week earlier, ahead of recently-signed McLaren and Mercedes-Benz Young Driver Support Programme member Oliver Rowland. What’s more, Max twice defeated reigning British Junior Karting Champion and Italian Open Masters title-winner Jack Harvey at Val Vibrata as he leapt up eight spots in the end-of-season standings to sixth out of some 42 drivers at the close, despite having only completed half the campaign on a competitive chassis.

“In the last two rounds – at Garda and Val Vibrata – I scored more points than any other driver,” he said, referring to the victory, brace of runner-up finishes and sixth place he has registered since switching across to his current Maranello mount. “It was excellent, really amazing. It still hasn’t really sunk in yet.”

The double celebration was also a confidence boost ahead of what Max hopes will be an all-out assault on the Italian Open Masters honours next year, as well as his upcoming outing in the BRDC Stars of Tomorrow championship at Genk in Belgium, where he will be bidding to repeat his Larkhall triumph last month.

“I want a decent result there,” he asserted. “The championship is very close. I had a bad round at Llandow last time, but hopefully I will be able to make up for that in Genk.”

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