Rob Huff ‘frustrated’ with balance at Thruxton

Rob Huff experienced a ‘frustrating’ weekend in the British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton, as the Toyota driver’s struggles with oversteer prevented him getting beyond the edge of the top ten.

Huff went into the fourth event of the year on a high, fresh from claiming his first BTCC win in 20 years at Snetterton.

But the Speedworks Motorsport driver soon faced a challenge at the UK’s fastest circuit, as struggles with setup in practice meant he failed to get into the top ten.

Those struggles continued into qualifying, where the 44-year-old failed to get out of Q1 and ended up 13^th on the grid for the opening race.

With progress proving tough at Thruxton, Huff could only manage 12^th in the opening race, his first visit to the circuit since competing in the Ginetta G50 Cup in 2010.

Huff took tenth in the second race, including a bold move on Tom Chilton around the outside at the chicane on the penultimate lap.

Tagged by Chilton through the complex at the start of race three, Huff had dropped to 12^th but fought back to claim ninth at the chequered flag.

“Thruxton has been a great circuit for me in the past and we built up a bit of confidence while fine-tuning the Toyota during free practice,” said Huff.

“The balance felt brilliant, but then we just found ourselves fighting a bucketload of oversteer in qualifying – it was so bad, it actually felt like something was broken.

“Maybe it was due to the increase in temperature after the sun came out. We changed virtually nothing after FP2 – if anything, we had calmed the set-up down, but the steering wheel and the car were going in opposite directions!

“It was so difficult to keep it under control and it kept biting me in all the wrong places, which was very frustrating and resulted in a couple of big ‘moments’ that weren’t particularly enjoyable, but thankfully we saved them.

“That then conditioned our race day a little bit, as it’s not particularly easy to pass at Thruxton, but we moved forward wherever we could, and I had some satisfying battles and good overtakes along the way.

“Now it’s onwards and upwards to Oulton Park!”

Speedworks Team Principal Christian Dick acknowledged the tough weekend, in which a couple of incidents also kept Huff’s team-mate Andrew Watson out of the top ten.

“There’s no question that Thruxton was a tough weekend, but we’re continuing to chip away,” said Dick. “Even if the results sheets don’t necessarily show it, we made further encouraging progress in terms of understanding how to optimise the Corolla for Rob and Andrew so they can really feel comfortable in the car and race consistently up towards the sharp end.

“Qualifying was a tricky session, and with the BTCC being about such fine margins at the moment, when you start a little bit further back in the pack, it’s difficult to come through.

“You’re also at the mercy of first lap incidents – both of which were elements that affected our ability to secure stronger results on Sunday.

“Despite those challenges, Rob and Andrew raced well as always to achieve five points finishes out of six, showcasing some great racecraft along the way.

“Now, our sights turn to our home event at Oulton Park, where everybody inside the team will be doubly determined to scoop some silverware again.”