Robert "Rob" Peter Huff (born 25 December 1979) is a British racing driver currently competing in the

British Touring Car Championship The British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), officially known as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by ...

for Toyota Gazoo Racing UK. He was the

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including a sing ...

champion and the

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

Scandinavian Touring Car Championship champion.

Racing career

Early years

A Christmas Day birth in 1979 in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, Huff had a long junior career in karting. He attended

St Faith's School St Faith's School is a private preparatory day school on Trumpington Road, Cambridge, England, for girls and boys aged four to thirteen. The headmaster is Crispin Hyde-Dunn. The school has more than five hundred children. St Faith's is part of ...

and

The Leys School The Leys School is a co-educational private school in Cambridge, England. It is a boarding and day school for about 565 pupils between the ages of eleven and eighteen. The head is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. ...

, Cambridge, from 1993 to 1996. He won the 2000 Formula Vauxhall championship, and class B of the 2001 Ethyl MG Championship (also finishing as runner-up in this series in 2000). His father's Chartered Surveying firm has been one of his main sponsors.

British Touring Car Championship

Debut with SEAT

Huff entered the big time by winning the inaugural SEAT Cupra Challenge in 2003, winning a paid drive in the

(BTCC) for the next season alongside former champion

Jason Plato Timothy Jason Plato (born 14 October 1967) is a British auto racing, racing driver who last competed in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) for BTC Racing. He has twice been List of BTCC champions, BTCC Champion, in 2001 British Touring ...

as a result. He battled on track with Plato in the second race at Thruxton but later lost his front splitter and retired, doing so again in the third race of the day. Huff started fifth at

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently hosts ...

and he was leading just before the safety car came out. He led away at the restart but was demoted to second by

Matt Neal Matthew Stephen Phillip Neal (born 20 December 1966) is a British motor racing driver. Neal is a triple BTCC Champion having won the British Touring Car Championship in 2005, 2006 and 2011. Neal is also a record 6 time BTCC Independents Champio ...

on the following lap and those position stuck until the end of the race, Huff claimed his first BTCC podium. He started round 8 at

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...

on the reversed grid pole but second placed starter

Kelvin Burt Kelvin Burt (born 7 September 1967 in Birmingham) is a British auto racing driver. After attending the Jim Russell Racing Drivers' School in 1987 he turned to Formula Ford racing, battling hard against David Coulthard for the championship. He wo ...

took the lead straight away and Huff soon fell victim to the

Vauxhall Vauxhall ( , ) is an area of South London, within the London Borough of Lambeth. Named after a medieval manor called Fox Hall, it became well known for the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. From the Victorian period until the mid-20th century, Va ...

of James Thompson. A collision with Michael Bentwood in the second race at

Mondello Park Mondello Park is Ireland's only international motorsport venue and is located in Caragh, County Kildare off the R409 regional road, approximately from Dublin city centre. History The Mondello Park short circuit was designed on farmland ne ...

meant Huff was disqualified and he started race three from the back. Huff eventually fell down to 7th place but he scored his second podium of the season in the third race. He claimed his first BTCC race win in round 24 at Brands Hatch and he repeated this success a fortnight later at

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded a parish population ...

. He adjusted well, finishing 7th overall in the championship.

One-offs with PMR and Team HARD

In 2017, Huff made a return with PMR at Silverstone as a step in for Tom Chilton after he got ruled out on medical grounds. He led for a majority of race 3, but eventually dropped behind Matt Neal late in the race and finished second, scoring the team's best result of the season. In 2023, Huff raced a Cupra Leon for Team HARD at Knockhill, replacing Nicolas Hamilton. He came 13th in Race 1, 14th in Race 2 and retired from Race 3, scoring 5 points.

Return with Speedworks

Huff returned to the BTCC full-time in 2024. He signed to drive a

Toyota Corolla The is a series of compact cars (formerly Subcompact car, subcompact) manufactured and marketed globally by the Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. Introduced in 1966, the Corolla was the best-selling car worldwide by 1974 and has bee ...

for Speedworks as part of an expanded 4-car line-up. He scored his first win in the reverse-grid race at Snetterton, where he led team-mates Aiden Moffat and

Josh Cook Joshua Alexander Cook (born 15 June 1991) is a British racing driver currently competing in the 2023 British Touring Car Championship, British Touring Car Championship for One Motorsport. He debuted in 2015, after being the runner-up in the Ren ...

to a Toyota 1-2-3. In doing so, he set a new record for the longest period between race wins in the BTCC at nearly 20 years, beating the previous record holder Dennis Leech by 2 years. He also won the reverse-grid race at Knockhill.

World Touring Car Championship

Chevrolet (2005–2012)

The

SEAT A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but may also refer to concentrations of power in a wider sense (i.e " seat (legal entity)"). See disambiguation. Types of seat The ...

BTCC team was run by Ray Mallock in 2004, and when his company took on the fledgling

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

WTCC project, they retained Huff. At the season opening Race of Italy, he finished ahead of his more experienced teammates Alain Menu and

Nicola Larini Nicola Larini (born 19 March 1964) is an Italian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between and . In touring car racing, Larini won the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft in 1993 Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft, 1993 and the I ...

in race one. He collided with the

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

of Antonio García in his home race at Silverstone, forcing him to retire. In what was a difficult season with the new car, Huff's best result of 2005 was a sixth place in Mexico and with it he took the first points for the Lacetti in the WTCC. He finished the year joint 20th with

Stéphane Ortelli Stéphane Ortelli (born 30 March 1970) is a Monaco, Monégasque professional racing driver with three world championship titles. He has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in with Allan McNish and Laurent Aïello and the Spa 24 Hours in 2003 ...

in the drivers' championship with only the three points scored in Mexico. That year he also did a one off in the guest car of the

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

Carrera Cup GB, but collided with championship contender Tim Harvey in race one. Robert Huff 2008 Brands Hatch

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

he finished fourth at

, which was his best result of the first half of the season. He was taken to hospital after an accident at

Puebla Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...

. At the following event at

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

in the Czech Republic, Huff started 24th due to two 10-place grid penalties, but he fought through to eighth place in the first race, which gave him pole for race 2 – giving him a lead he never relinquished en route to a first WTCC win, and the first for Chevrolet in the dry. However, the rest of the season was short on results, he finished 16th in the final standings. There was an improvement in form once again from the Chevrolet team in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, Huff took a further win at the

Scandinavian Raceway Anderstorp Raceway, previously known as Scandinavian Raceway, is a motorsport race track in Anderstorp (Gislaved Municipality), Sweden and the sole Nordic host of a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix, when the Swedish Grand Prix was held ...

in Sweden, plus three more podiums, including his part in a Chevrolet 1–2–3 at

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

. These results ultimately left him ninth overall in the series, but behind team-mates Larini and Menu. The team took a win at every new circuit introduced for the 2007 season. He opened

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

with four pointless races, but came in first and second in the two races at

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. He was disqualified from the second race of the

FIA WTCC Race of the Czech Republic The FIA WTCR Race of the Czech Republic is a round of the World Touring Car Cup, which is held at the Autodrom Most in the Czech Republic. The race took place between 2006 World Touring Car Championship season, 2006 season and 2011 World Touring ...

due to his car having an illegal anti-roll bar linkage. At Brands Hatch he made his 100th WTCC start, qualifying third and taking the lead after a lap one collision between Menu and pole sitter

Augusto Farfus Augusto Celestino Farfus dos Santos Jr. (born 3 September 1983) is a Brazilian professional racing driver, and BMW Motorsport works driver. He lives in Monaco. Early years Born in Curitiba, Farfus first tasted racing in minibike races and wo ...

. He led until a puncture three laps from the end. He finished the season third in the championship, behind

drivers

Yvan Muller Yvan Muller (born 16 August 1969) is a French auto racing driver most noted for success in touring car racing. He is a four-time World Touring Car Championship, World Touring Car Champion, winning the title in 2008 with SEAT, in 2010 and 2011 wit ...

and

Gabriele Tarquini Gabriele Tarquini (born 2 March 1962) is an Italian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between and , and World Touring Car from to 2021. In touring car racing, Tarquini won the World Touring Car Championship in with SEAT; ...

For

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

, Chevrolet switched to the Cruze chassis. Huff did not make the best of starts to the season, failing to progress through to Q2 at the Race of Brazil and scoring no points. It was not until the Race of Morocco when things picked up; Huff took pole position and won the first race to take his first points of the season and the first win for the Chevrolet Cruze. He qualified fifth at the Race of France but a good start meant he passed pole sitter Andy Priaulx and then Farfus on the second lap to take his second win of the season. Huff qualified on the front row for his home event, the Race of UK. He passed pole sitter Menu and led away from the restart after the safety car but was re-passed Menu, depriving Huff of a home win and putting him under pressure from the BMW of Priaulx. Huff qualified sixth for the Race of Germany but dropped to sixteenth on the grid after an engine change incurred a ten-place grid penalty. A first lap incident in the first race eliminated Huff along with

Jörg Müller Jörg Müller (, ; born 3 September 1969) is a Dutch-born German BMW factory driver. Racing career Born in Kerkrade, Netherlands, Müller won the titles in 1989 German Formula Opel Lotus Challenge and in 1989 European Formula Ford 1600. Th ...

, Jordi Gené and Farfus. Gené caused an accident in the first race of the Race of Italy, making contact with Huff under braking who then made contact with

of Rickard Rydell. Huff escaped any serious damage to hold onto third. He took pole position for the season finale at

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

and dominated the first race. Huff finished the season ranked fifth in the championship, ahead of teammates Alain Menu and

. In 2010, he finished the championship third behind new teammate Yvan Muller and Tarquini. The Chevrolet Cruze was the dominant car in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

, winning all but three races. The Chevrolet drivers were in a title battle all of their own, with Huff leading the championship early in the season. Muller took the lead later on, taking the battle right down to the last event at

. Huff won both races but this was not enough to stop Muller taking the title, his second with Chevrolet and his third in total. In

, Chevrolet announced this to be their last season in WTCC. The Chevy Cruze "blue train" with Huff,

and Alain Menu was again dominant over the field, taking 20 wins out of 24 races in the season. Muller took nine wins and led the championship for most of the season, Huff showed consistency and finished in the points for all the races except two. Finishing behind Muller did not seem enough until Muller tagged Menu from the lead in Shanghai, the penultimate round of the championship, sending Menu into a big slide and letting Huff through to overtake both of them and win the race. Menu lost a vital race win and Muller was given a penalty after the race, putting him out of the points altogether, giving Huff a big lead in the points. Menu was furious with Muller, saying "Yvan ruined both of their championships". In the final round in Macau, Huff was a clear favourite with a 37-point lead over Menu and 42 over Muller after qualifying on pole. In the first race though, drama unfolded. Huff lost the lead to Muller on lap one and overtook him on lap four to regain the lead but right after made a driving error and touched the barrier twice, forcing him to retire with damage. Muller won the race ahead of Menu, both reviving their chances for the championship. Huff's car got repaired for race two, with the help of both Menu's and Muller's crews in Chevrolet. Huff started the race eighth and had to finish fifth to secure the championship. On lap four, Yvan Muller ran into the back of Alex MacDowall's Chevrolet coming out of Mandarin, the fastest corner in the WTCC calendar, which spun MacDowall into the wall hard. The race was effectively finished with two safety car periods. Huff finished the race second behind Menu and ahead of Muller, with Chevrolet's campaign in World Touring Cars ending on another 1–2–3 finish for the team. Second place points were more than enough for Huff to win his first World Touring Car title and the first title for a British driver since

Andy Priaulx Andrew Graham Priaulx, Order of the British Empire, MBE ( born 7 August 1974) is a British people, British racing driver from Guernsey. In 2019 he raced for Chip Ganassi Racing, Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK in the FIA World Endurance Championship, ...

in 2007.

Münnich Motorsport (2013)

Huff joined ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport in February 2013, driving one of the team's SEAT León WTCCs and replacing

Markus Winkelhock Markus Winkelhock (; born 13 June 1980) is a German professional racing driver. He is the son of Manfred Winkelhock and nephew of Joachim Winkelhock, both of whom were Formula One drivers in the 1980s. During his brief Formula One career he led th ...

in their line-up for the 2013 season. He failed to set a time in qualifying for the Race of Italy having collided with the Wiechers-Sport car of Fredy Barth in the first few minutes of Q1 and breaking his suspension. He was allowed to start the races from the back and climbed up to sixth place at the end of race one. His car received further attention prior to the start of race two and he started from the pit lane and finished tenth.

Lada Sport (2014–2015)

At the 2013 FIA WTCC Race of China it was announced Huff would join Lada Sport for the

2014 World Touring Car Championship season The 2014 FIA World Touring Car Championship was a motor racing competition organised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for Super 2000 Cars. It was the eleventh FIA World Touring Car Championship, and the tenth since the s ...

, having signed a two–year deal with the team. Robert Huff was the driver who did not drive the dominating Citroën C-Elysée and who won the most numerous races in 2014 : two races, thanks to the ''inverted grid departure'' for the race 2 and a 60 kg lower ''compensation weight''. In spite of these advantages, he proved thus his level of driving performances. Lada introduced a new car for the 2015 WTCC season : the Lada Vesta, developed mainly by the French company

Oreca ORECA (Organisation Exploitation Compétition Automobiles) is a French auto racing, racing team and race car constructor, founded in 1973 and run by Hugues de Chaunac, former team manager of F1 team Automobiles Gonfaronnaises Sportives, AGS. Or ...

Racing record

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded in first race) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded all races) (* signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap – 1 point given all races)

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^†Did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete TCR International Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete World Touring Car Cup results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^† Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete STCC TCR Scandinavia Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete TCR China Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete TCR World Tour results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete TCR Europe Touring Car Series results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^‡ Driver was a World Tour full-time entry and was ineligible for points.

Britcar 24 Hour results

References

External links

*
Profile at fiawtcc.com

Robert Huff profile
on Stapleford website where he was born and bred {{DEFAULTSORT:Huff, Robert 1979 births Living people English racing drivers British Formula Renault 2.0 drivers World Touring Car Champions World Touring Car Championship drivers British Touring Car Championship drivers TC 2000 Championship drivers Formula Palmer Audi drivers BRDC Gold Star winners 24 Hours of Daytona drivers WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drivers Porsche Carrera Cup GB drivers Britcar 24-hour drivers World Touring Car Cup drivers Ginetta GT4 Supercup drivers Renault UK Clio Cup drivers Sébastien Loeb Racing drivers W Racing Team drivers Nürburgring 24 Hours drivers 24H Series drivers TCR Asia Series drivers Volkswagen Motorsport drivers Cupra Racing drivers Zengő Motorsport drivers TCR Europe Touring Car Series drivers Comtoyou Racing drivers TCR South America Touring Car Championship drivers TCR Italian Touring Car Championship drivers TCR China Touring Car Championship drivers TCR Australia Touring Car Series drivers Sportspeople from Cambridge TCR World Tour drivers