Rob Huff has praised the professionalism of his WestCoast Racing outfit after taking pole position in qualifying for the TCR International Series in Macau, ahead of team-mate Kevin Gleason.
Huff scored his fourth pole on the streets of Macau in Saturday’s qualifying session, continuing the form which had seen him top both of the free practice sessions previously.
Gleason was Huff’s nearest rival, ending up 1.631 seconds adrift to put his Honda Civic in second on the grid for race one.
“WestCoast Racing, JAS Motorsport and I did a good job together and I’m delighted to be working with such a professional bunch of people,” said Huff. “It’s never easy to jump into a new championship in the last race, not knowing the car and the team, but progress has been really good throughout the sessions.
“The race itself will be a different story, as there are a number of uncertainties, but the car has a nice balance and is easy to drive, so I’m happy.”
Huff admits that he didn’t push particularly hard in the first part of qualifying, allowing Gleason to end Q1 as the fastest driver, with Huff a close 0.441 seconds behind.
Q2 saw Huff continue to push despite his 1.6 second advantage, resulting in him heading down an escape road on his last attempt in the session.
“I didn’t push in Q1 and I knew there was a lot of time to come from the car,” added the Brit. “I pushed on the first run in the second part of qualifying and set a time that was good enough for pole position, knowing there was still more to extract, so I went again with fresh front tyres and improved further.
“I was hoping that was good enough for pole, but I decided to go for one more but I was distracted by a small problem when shifting down the gears and made an error.”
Gleason had never driven on the Circuito da Guia prior to Thursday’s first practice session, leaving the American happy with a front row grid position on his first visit to the famous circuit.
“I’m really happy with how qualifying went and it’s great to be on the front row on my first outing in Macau,” said the American. “The track is more difficult than I could have ever anticipated and this has been a real learning process.
“I’ve learnt something in every session, including Q1 where I was able to piece everything together and put in a strong lap. It’s just about getting comfortable with the car on the circuit, finding the braking points and entry speeds and analysing data, but Rob has been able to help with the small details of the track and I’ve been able to apply those lessons in each session, which is pretty satisfying.”