Rob Huff returns to winning ways in the BTCC, 20 years after last win

Rob Huff scored his first British Touring Car Championship victory in 20 years in a thrilling final race at Snetterton, having fought through the pack from 14^th on the grid on a drying track.

One of seven drivers to start the race on the favourable soft tyre, Huff was up to sixth by the end of the second lap, as the early lead was assumed by Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill and Toyota’s Andrew Watson, the only two drivers who started the race on the wet tyre.

Hill, in fact, led for the first two thirds of the race, the BMW driver having leapt from ninth on the grid up to fifth at the start.

When pole-sitter Sam Osborne lost his Ford Focus through the first corner, sending his car sideways in as cloud of tyre smoke, the field had to check up, and Speedworks’ Aiden Moffat emerged as the leader from WSR’s Bobby Thompson.

Hill got by Thompson for second at Agostini, before assuming the lead further around the lap when Moffat went wide at the Bomb Hole.

With Hill quickest in the wet final sector of the lap, he used this to his advantage and extended a lead of seven and a half seconds by lap five.

However his wet tyres soon began to go off, and in the latter stages he was lapping more than six seconds per lap slower than his rivals on dry tyres.

Huff had been embroiled in a four-car scrap with his Toyota colleagues since lap five, and despite some fierce battling with Josh Cook, which resulted in Huff going straight on at The Esses on lap seven, he emerged in second on lap eight, having slipped inside Moffat when he had a huge slide through Coram.

The pass on Hill on the next lap was a breeze due to the tyre advantage for Huff, who took the lead into Agostini and never looked back, although he later admitted that he wasn’t even sure he was leading at this stage.

Moffat held on to take second, with Cook completing the podium in third. The result is Toyota’s first-ever 1-2-3 in the BTCC, and also the first 1-2 since 1992.

EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram was fourth after coming through the field from 16^th on the grid, the Hyundai driver making up most of his ground on the opening lap.

NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton was fifth after seizing an opportunistic move past both EXCELR8’s Tom Chilton and the struggling Hill at Agostini, completing a strong drive from the very back of the field to maintain his championship lead, which now stands at ten points.

Chilton took the chequered flag in sixth despite trying to fight back past, ahead of BMW’s Colin Turkington in seventh.

Bobby Thompson took eighth, WSR’s newest BMW signing having dropped back four places on the opening lap, to conclude his maiden WSR weekend with a trio of top ten results for the first time in his BTCC career.

The top ten was completed by the struggling Hill and Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble, who took the Independents’ class victory for the second time in a row.

After starting on the wets, Andrew Watson faded quickly after the mid-stage of the race and finished down in 16^th.

NAPA Racing’s Daniel Rowbottom was battling for a top ten result before picking up a puncture early on and falling a lap down.

The only retirement of the race was Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley, who was turned around by Daryl DeLeon on the opening lap after he in turn was tapped by Huff in a moment of mid-pack bunching.

Race results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	12	M		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	25:37.243	2:02.481	14
2	16	M		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	2.338	2:02.697	2
3	66	M		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	3.297	2:02.351	7
4	80	M		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	3.501	2:01.251	16
5	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	12.830	2:03.453	20
6	3	M		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	14.169	2:04.617	6
7	20	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	12	16.470	2:03.758	15
8	19	M		Bobby THOMPSON	Zeus Cloud Racing with WSR	BMW 330e M Sport	12	19.425	2:02.948	3
9	24	M		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	12	20.025	2:08.458	9
10	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	12	21.864	2:03.145	5
11	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	12	24.073	2:03.812	18
12	18	I		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	12	24.565	2:05.555	10
13	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	32.149	2:04.876	8
14	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	34.856	2:03.092	1
15	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	12	34.857	2:04.297	12
16	11	M		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	46.341	2:10.039	4
17	29	I		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	12	46.697	2:06.370	11
18	14	M		Ronan PEARSON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	52.203	2:05.287	19
19	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	11	+ 1 LAP	2:03.682	17
R	222	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	0	DNF	N/A	13
NS	22	M		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	–	DNS	N/A	21