Rob Huff: The British Driver Who Won the 2012 World Touring Car Title

Robert Peter Huff is a British driver who won the World Touring Car Championship in 2012 with Chevrolet. He has also raced in the British Touring Car Championship across several spells, and he was Scandinavian Touring Car Championship champion in 2020.

Where did Rob Huff's racing begin?

Huff was born on 25 December 1979 in Cambridge. He spent his youth in karts, then went to St Faith's School and later The Leys School in Cambridge, attending the two between 1993 and 1996.

He took the 2000 Formula Vauxhall title and, after finishing runner-up in the Ethyl MG Championship a year earlier, he won class B of that series in 2001. His father's chartered surveying firm was one of his main backers during those years.

A karting graduate who became a world champion with Chevrolet and then found his way back to the BTCC.

How did his BTCC debut with SEAT come about?

Huff reached the British Touring Car Championship by taking the inaugural SEAT Cupra Challenge in 2003. The prize was a paid seat in the BTCC for 2004, partnering former champion Jason Plato.

The first weekend was a struggle. At Thruxton he tangled with Plato in the second race, lost a front splitter and retired, and he was out of the third race as well. At Brands Hatch he started fifth and was briefly in front before the safety car, then lost second to Matt Neal on the lap after the restart. That second place held to the flag and gave him his first BTCC podium.

What went wrong in his early 2004 rounds?

At round eight, Silverstone, Huff began from the reversed grid pole, but Kelvin Burt, the second-placed starter, took the lead at once. Huff then lost ground to James Thompson in a Vauxhall.

At Mondello Park he collided with Michael Bentwood in race two and was disqualified, so race three started from the back. He fought his way up to seventh there, and that third race also brought his second podium of the year.

When did Huff win his first BTCC races?

His first BTCC race victory came in round 24 at Brands Hatch. A fortnight later he won again at Snetterton, and those two wins helped him finish seventh in the championship.

Where did his occasional BTCC drives take him?

In 2017 Huff returned to the BTCC with PMR at Silverstone, stepping in for Tom Chilton, who had been ruled out for medical reasons. He led most of race three before losing ground to Matt Neal late on, and he finished second, the team's best result that season.

In 2023 he took the wheel of a Cupra Leon entered by Team HARD at Knockhill, succeeding Nicolas Hamilton. He finished 13th in Race 1 and 14th in Race 2, then retired from Race 3, leaving the weekend with five points.

How has the Speedworks return gone?

Huff came back to the BTCC as a full-time driver in 2024, in a Toyota Corolla for Speedworks, which ran four cars that year. His first win arrived in the reverse-grid race at Snetterton.

That result gave the team a Toyota 1-2-3, with Aiden Moffat and Josh Cook behind him. It also ended the longest gap between BTCC race wins on record, almost two decades, and beat the mark held by Dennis Leech by two years. He added the reverse-grid race at Knockhill later in the season.

How did Huff join the World Touring Car Championship?

Ray Mallock ran the SEAT BTCC team in 2004. When Mallock's company took on the new Chevrolet WTCC project, Huff stayed with the operation. In the first race of the 2005 season at the Race of Italy, he finished ahead of the more experienced Alain Menu and Nicola Larini.

The new car proved hard work. At Silverstone, his home round, he was tangled with Antonio Garcia's BMW and retired. His best result that year was sixth in Mexico, which brought the Lacetti its first WTCC points. He ended the season joint 20th with Stephane Ortelli, on those three points alone.

That year he also made a one-off appearance in a guest car in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, but he collided with the title contender Tim Harvey in race one.

What were the 2006 and 2007 WTCC seasons like?

In 2006 Huff ended up fourth at Brands Hatch, his strongest finish of the first half of the year. After an accident at Puebla he was taken to hospital for checks. At Brno in the Czech Republic he began 24th, having picked up two ten-place grid penalties, but he worked up to eighth in the first race. That earned him pole for race two, and he kept the lead through to his first WTCC victory.

The Brno win was also Chevrolet's first in the dry. The rest of the season yielded little, and he finished 16th in the final standings.

The 2007 campaign went better for the team. Huff added a victory at the Scandinavian Raceway in Sweden and three further podiums, one of them as part of a Chevrolet 1-2-3 at Porto. He finished ninth overall, with Larini and Menu ahead of him in the team's line-up, and the team won at each circuit that was new that year.

How close did he come to the title in 2008?

In 2008 Huff started with four races without points, then finished first and second across the two Valencia races. In the Czech Republic he was later disqualified from race two, because his car carried an illegal anti-roll bar linkage.

His 100th WTCC start came at Brands Hatch. He qualified third, moved into the lead after a first-lap clash between Menu and pole sitter Augusto Farfus, and kept it until a puncture three laps from the flag. He ended the season third in the championship, behind SEAT's Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini.

Why did the Cruze season in 2009 stand out?

For 2009 Chevrolet moved to the Cruze chassis. Huff had a poor start, failing to make Q2 in Brazil and taking no points. Morocco turned things around, as he claimed pole and won the first race, which also gave the Cruze its first victory.

At France he qualified fifth, but a sharp start took him past Andy Priaulx and then Augusto Farfus by the second lap, and he won again. At his home round in the UK he started from the front row and led after the safety car restart, only for Menu to pass him back. That cost him a home win and left him chasing Priaulx's BMW.

Germany went badly after an engine change dropped him from sixth to sixteenth on the grid. At Italy he was caught up in contact with Gene and held on to third. He then claimed pole for the Macau finale and controlled the first race. He finished 2009 fifth in the championship, ahead of Menu and Larini.

How did 2010 and 2011 play out?

In 2010 Huff was third in the championship behind newly arrived teammate Muller and Tarquini. The Cruze dominated 2011, winning all but three races.

The two Chevrolet drivers fought a title battle of their own. Huff led the standings early on, but Muller moved ahead later and the fight went to the final event at Macau. Huff won both races there, yet Muller still took the title, his second with Chevrolet.

How did Huff win the 2012 World Touring Car title?

Chevrolet announced in 2012 that it would leave the WTCC at the end of the year. Its Cruze trio of Huff, Muller and Menu was again the strongest force, winning 20 of the 24 races. Muller took nine of those wins and led for most of the year, while Huff scored points at every round except two.

At Shanghai, the penultimate round, Muller clipped Menu while leading, sending Menu into a heavy slide. Huff went past both of them to win the race. Muller was then penalised and lost his points, which opened a large gap for Huff.

Heading into the Macau finale Huff led Menu by 37 points and Muller by 42 after taking pole. In race one he lost the lead to Muller on the first lap and regained it on the fourth, but then made an error, touched the barrier twice and retired with damage.

Chevrolet's crews worked on his car for race two. Huff started eighth and needed a fifth-place finish to take the title. On lap four Muller ran into the back of Alex MacDowall as they came out of Mandarin, sending MacDowall into the wall, and two safety car periods followed. Huff crossed the line second behind Menu, and the team finished with another 1-2-3. That result was enough for Huff to take the World Touring Car title, the first British driver to take the crown since Andy Priaulx in 2007.

What did the Munnich and Lada years bring?

In February 2013 Huff signed with ALL-INKL.COM Munnich Motorsport, driving one of its SEAT Leon WTCCs in place of Markus Winkelhock. At the Race of Italy he could not set a qualifying time after a collision with Fredy Barth in the opening minutes of Q1, which broke his suspension. He started from the back and climbed to sixth by the end of race one. For race two he began in the pit lane and came home tenth.

At the 2013 Race of China Lada Sport announced that he would join them for 2014 on a two-year deal. In 2014 he won two races, helped by an inverted grid for race two and a 60 kg lower compensation weight. For 2015 Lada introduced the Lada Vesta, mostly engineered by the French firm Oreca.

What were his key results, season by season?

Is Huff still racing in the BTCC?

He is currently listed in the British Touring Car Championship with Toyota Gazoo Racing UK. His career has therefore run from the early SEAT years through the WTCC to a return to the BTCC, with the 2020 Scandinavian title as an additional honour.