Goddard open to longer term car share

Zane Goddard has revealed he is open to the possibility of spending two years in Matt Stone Racing’s SuperLite program in his bid to establish himself as a Supercars driver.

The 20-year-old was last month confirmed to step up to the main game as part of a driver share model with fellow Dunlop Super2 Series graduate Jake Kostecki.

Goddard will get the first chance to race the #34 ZB Commodore at the Superloop Adelaide 500 on February 20-23, with other starts scheduled at Symmons Plains, New Zealand, Winton and Sydney Motorsport Park.

He and Kostecki will also partner up for the PIRTEK Enduro Cup rounds at The Bend, Bathurst and Gold Coast.

While he hopes to make a big enough impression to be considered for a full campaign in 2021, Goddard knows it may be a gradual path to the top.

“I’m definitely not discounting this being a two-year program because it’s a good way of building yourself into Supercars,” Goddard told Supercars.com.

“But if I have a really strong year this year, then I’ll definitely be hoping to make the full-time jump.

“It’s very early days, we haven’t even started the first year. It’s also a trial for the team and for the championship, it hasn’t really been done before, so it’s sort of learning it all on the fly.

“We’ll see how well the first year goes.”

Having placed fourth in the Super2 standings for MW Motorsport last year, Goddard is steering clear of setting results-orientated goals for 2020 at this stage.

“It’s sort of a hard one to benchmark because a lot of people when they make the step up to Supercars have done co-drives and stuff before, so they sort of know what to expect,” he said.

“I’m coming in a bit blind, I don’t know how I’m going to compare to everyone else.

“I’m expecting the level of driving to be extremely high…  it’s sort of one of those ones where I just have to come in open-minded and focus on the process and just go for the best result I can get, whatever that is.”

Admitting his newfound status of being a Supercars driver is yet to truly sink in, Goddard plans to do simulator work in addition to a possible rookie test day in the lead-up to the category-wide pre-season test at The Bend on February 18.

“It’s my first time in a Triple Eight-built Commodore so that will take a little bit to get used to,” he said.

“Usually jumping from car to car in Supercars, there isn’t a crazy difference, there’s just little idiosyncrasies that you sort of just need to work on.

“We’ll do that, a little bit of sim before then and then there’s that day at Tailem Bend, first time there, so it will be a good hit out for me and Jake.”

His immediate preparations, though, will take a backseat to a fortnight’s rest required as part of the recovery from having his tonsils taken out on Wednesday.