Huff triumphs in ‘proper touring car battle’ north of the border
BTCC returnee clinches lights-to-flag success after epic Scottish scrap
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK star climbs to seventh in title standings
Team-mate Watson showcases speed once again but remains out of luck
Rob Huff unleashed an outstanding performance to claim his second victory of the 2024 British Touring Car Championship campaign at Knockhill yesterday (11 August), holding his nerve in an epic duel that will live long in the memory of all who witnessed it.
Huff’s Scottish weekend did not start off so promisingly, with a troubled qualifying leaving him an unrepresentative 13th on the grid amongst the 20 high-calibre contenders, as a scant 13 thousandths-of-a-second kept him out of Q2 in an incredibly tight session.
Undeterred, the former FIA World Touring Car Champion put his soft-spec Goodyear tyres to effective use in the curtain-raising contest, rising into the top ten by lap five and getting the better of Dan Cammish with a superb switchback move that began at the final hairpin and was completed on the exit of McIntyre’s several corners later. He went on to take the chequered flag eighth.
Huff inevitably conceded some ground on the less competitive medium compound in race two, winding up 12th, but that then earned him pole position for the partially-reversed grid finale – and after maintaining his advantage at lights-out, the Cambridgeshire ace endeavoured to make good his escape prior to coming under attack from Tom Ingram.
In front of the live ITV4 television cameras and a large, enthusiastic trackside crowd soaking up the brilliant summer sunshine, the pair ran side-by-side on multiple occasions as they pushed each other to the ragged edge.
Resolutely standing his ground, Huff had to draw upon all of his renowned racecraft, experience and guile to keep the championship leader at bay in a heroic display. His reward for such a dogged defence was a thoroughly well-deserved fourth career triumph in the UK’s premier motor racing series, as he inched away in the closing stages to cross the finish line just under a second-and-a-half to the good – elevating the Fewkes Sport Management athlete and director to seventh in the championship standings.
In the sister British-built Toyota Corolla GR Sport, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK team-mate Andrew Watson was one of the stars early on in the weekend, lapping third-quickest in free practice and topping the timesheets in his group in Q1. He subsequently advanced to the ‘Quick Six’ for the first time since the Donington Park season-opener as he equalled his best qualifying result of the year to-date.
The 29-year-old Northern Irishman – the BTCC’s reigning Jack Sears Trophy winner – toughed it out to fend off a hard-charging Cammish in race one, and he was busy similarly holding his own against defending champion Ash Sutton when a major ‘moment’ coming out of the chicane at mid-distance sent him skating spectacularly across the grass. He produced a razor-sharp save to rejoin the track without doing any significant damage, but the delay cost him several places and restricted him to 11th at the flag.
On the medium rubber in race two, Watson found himself in the heat of battle throughout, constantly either attacking or defending but ultimately slipping to 14th as a number of soft tyre-shod rivals came through. In race three, the Belfast native then peeled into the pits at the end of the formation lap due to a steering issue. Rejoining four laps down, he proceeded to post the fifth-fastest time in evidence of what might have been...
Christian Dick, Team Principal, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK, said:
“What a way to finish the weekend in Scotland! We’ve seen some pretty sensational battles in the BTCC over the years, and that one has to rank right up there amongst them. It was relentless virtually the whole way through, and Rob was made to work extremely hard for the win, which only makes it all-the-more satisfying. It was a consummate drive that truly demonstrated just why he is a former world champion.
“He managed the race superbly and had an answer to everything Ingram threw at him. The pressure was intense but he absorbed it all flawlessly and refused to buckle, placing his car precisely where he knew Tom might try to get past, lap after lap after lap. The hard-fought wins always taste the best, and this one feels particularly special.
“Andrew showcased his evident potential once more during free practice and qualifying, and he was doing a stellar job of staving off Sutton in race one when he came unstuck at the chicane. He was out of luck again in race three with the track rod breakage, but his pace was strong when he returned to the track, which bodes well for the remainder of the campaign. He’s still clearly searching for the rub of the green in 2024, but his time will come, I’m very sure about that.”
Rob Huff, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK, said:
“I’m super-proud of the team, and super-proud of myself as well, to be honest! We had a few problems in qualifying, but we identified the cause and put everything right in time for Sunday. We took the option of the soft tyre for race one, which I think was the right choice and helped us to climb to eighth, so that was a good start. I rather enjoyed the scrap with Dan [Cammish]; it was hard, fair racing with him giving me the room I needed and vice-versa – exactly how it should be. Hopefully we made it exciting for everybody watching!
“We then made a few more little tweaks that took the car even further in the right direction, and what a mega battle we had in race three – that was proper touring car racing and I enjoyed it a lot! I figured out fairly early where Ingram was quicker than me, and I made sure I covered him while trying to capitalise upon where I was stronger. It’s so tight-and-twisty around Knockhill that you fortunately don’t have to do too much in the way of defending, and I was very canny with where I placed my car.
“I used my hybrid smartly, ensuring I still had enough left for later on and while Tom tried hard, he saw how much I wanted it and with a championship to consider, I think he probably thought twice. When he and Tom Chilton then began fighting amongst themselves, that gave me a little bit of respite in the closing laps. I’m so, so pleased – it was a great end to the weekend.”
Andrew Watson, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK, said:
“I love Knockhill – it’s so much fun, and probably my favourite circuit of the year. You’ve got to be willing to abuse the car a bit – it’s a real balance of risk versus reward – and after making some improvements and lapping close to the outright pace in practice, we gave the Corolla a bit of a polish before qualifying and sent it.
“Like we’ve shown previously, we can extract single-lap performance out of the car, but we really struggled on race day. We didn’t have the speed in the first two races and got caught up in mid-pack battles, which obviously isn’t where we want to be, so we bolted a completely different set-up on for race three only for the track rod to break on the way to the grid!
“I pitted for it to be fixed and was able to set some quick lap times after rejoining, but by that point, of course, it was far too late. The pace at least was encouraging and we’re continuing to learn every weekend, but unfortunately we’re still not getting the results. We just desperately need some luck!”
Images: Jakob Ebrey Photography