ZANE Goddard has elected to walk away from professional motorsport for at least this year.
While not a formal retirement per se, the 24-year-old is stepping back to focus on other exploits – including his burgeoning career in the field of architecture.
Goddard, the son of renowned Gold Coast architect Bayden, is entering the final year of his bachelor’s degree.
Life in motorsport has been a rollercoaster ride for the former Matt Stone Racing full-timer.
A race winner in British Formula 4, he returned home from the European open-wheel scene amid his father’s cancer battle.
After two years in Super2, Goddard spent the 2020 and 2021 main game seasons with MSR, showing promise before unexpectedly finding himself on the sidelines.
A 2022 Tickford Racing co-drive turned into a disaster in the form of an infamous Bathurst crash; then last year proved a highlight as he piloted a Triple Eight wildcard including to 10th in the Sandown 500 with Craig Lowndes.
Tipped to be a key player in the 2024 Supercars co-driver market, Goddard today revealed his shock move.
“It’s obviously not an overly easy decision,” he told V8 Sleuth.
“I’ve been racing for 15 years or so now, so to stop, I guess I just needed a bit of a change-up for this year.
“Whether that’s what the future will be from here on in, I’m not sure, but it just felt like the right time.
“I had opportunities to go again but it’s one of those things: if you do it, you really want to give 100 percent to the team that you’re racing with and make sure you’re doing everything.
“There’s a few things I want to do outside of racing for the year and I’m happy to pursue those avenues a bit more.”
The most racing Goddard might do is a cameo appearance in the low-profile SuperMini Challenge.
“I did a round last year at Lakeside, in a Supercheap car, which was honestly one of the most fun race meetings I’ve done in years,” he said.
“I actually had a ball doing that, so there’s a good chance I will probably do a round or so of that.
“I’m not saying I’ve lost the passion – I still love racing – but it’s just sort of getting back to basics.”
Goddard is not closing the door altogether on a comeback.
“There’s still definitely time,” he said.
“It’s a hard one, like with racing nothing is ever guaranteed… but I’m pretty happy with what I have done.
“Obviously I haven’t won any big things as far as Supercars goes, but I’ve won some races overseas, I got in some Top 10 Shootouts and had some pretty good qualifyings.
“I’ve had some really good experiences and met a lot of really good people.”
Speaking to the Triple Eight/Lowndes campaign, Goddard added: “I sort of came out of 2022 a bit bruised and battered to say the least, so it was nice to have a really enjoyable year and get my passion for racing back.
“I definitely didn’t know how I was going to feel about racing going into last year but I had a ball, the team were fantastic, everyone at Supercheap as well, they were really passionate about racing and made the whole experience fantastic.
“But what the future holds, I don’t know; we’ll wait and see.”
