Rob Huff and Andrew Watson claimed a clutch of points-scoring finishes for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park last weekend (24-25 August), as the locally-built Toyota Corolla GR Sport showcased its speed on home soil.
Less than 15 miles down the road from Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK (TMUK) in nearby Burnaston, Donington’s legendary ‘GP’ circuit is one of British motorsport’s toughest tracks, but last weekend, the weather posed an arguably even greater challenge.
In a wet-but-drying qualifying session, Huff, at times, topped the timesheets during his group in Q1 before clinching 11th spot on the grid in the country’s premier motor racing series. Team-mate Watson, however, was less fortunate. Having featured consistently inside the top eight throughout free practice, the Northern Irishman ran out of time to get temperature into his slick tyres after changing over from wets, leaving him a frustrated 19th.
Sunday dawned dry, and in front of the live ITV4 television cameras and a capacity trackside crowd, a stellar start in the curtain-raising contest saw Huff vault immediately up to sixth, subsequently punishing a mistake by Árón Taylor-Smith to climb to fifth.
The former FIA World Touring Car Champion later lost out to Knockhill nemesis Tom Ingram – on a recovery charge following earlier drama – and Adam Morgan after a crowd-pleasing side-by-side duel that took several corners to resolve, ultimately taking the chequered flag seventh.
Despite having to contend with a complete lack of hybrid boost due to a malfunctioning system, Huff repeated the result in race two – engaging in another entertaining tussle with Morgan along the way – but in the day’s finale falling to 15th place as the Cambridgeshire ace clung doggedly onto the last points-paying position.
In the sister Speedworks Motorsport-prepared Corolla, reigning Jack Sears Trophy winner Watson made a bright start in race one to rise to 14th on the opening tour, before unfortunately sideswiping the tyre stack at the Esses chicane on lap three, with the impact launching his Toyota momentarily airborne and causing substantial damage to the suspension and front end of the car.
Following an extraordinary repair job by the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK crew, Watson battled his way to a couple of points for 14th place in race two. The 29-year-old got stuck into the thick of the midfield fight once again in race three, going on to cross the finish line 12th.
Christian Dick, Team Principal, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK, said: “That was a weekend where we didn’t really come away with the results to match our performance. Rob did a great job to tally a pair of strong seventh-place finishes, and doing so without any hybrid in race two was particularly impressive, as we saw how significant a factor that was on the ‘GP’ circuit. He had to draw upon all of his skill and experience to hang onto his position, but then unfortunately got pushed around like a pinball in race three as driving standards seemed to disappear out of the window.
“Andrew showed tremendous strength of character to fight back from both his qualifying disappointment – when we simply found ourselves wrong-footed by the evolving track conditions – and such a big accident in race one, from which we were very relieved to see him emerge relatively unscathed.
“The team put in a heroic effort to fix his car for race two, for which I want to thank every single one of them, and as ever, we received amazing support throughout from our friends and colleagues at TMUK. They work so hard in the background and we benefit from their development and expertise. It’s always good to give them something in return, and hopefully they all enjoyed their trackside experience at the weekend.”
Rob Huff, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK, said: “On the whole, it wasn’t a bad weekend, and it allowed us to gauge the progress we’ve made since we were last at Donington back at the start of the season, so we’re very happy with that. Qualifying was about being on-track at the right time, but we know around Donington, grid position isn’t always the be-all-and-end-all because you can make a real race of it, and we were ready to give it a good crack on Sunday.
“We scored some solid points in the first two races. In the second one, I think we did well to hang on to finish seventh without any hybrid, but then in the last race, I got hit from behind on three separate occasions and fired into other cars – typical race three desperation moves. Unfortunately, that blocked the air intake in the engine and hurt our straight-line speed.
“Overall, though, we took some more good points from the weekend and we are continuing to move forward. We’re not quite where we want to be yet, but we’ve made great steps in the right direction and it feels like we’ve put ourselves at the front of the chasing pack. We’re still chipping away and gaining momentum, and now the goal is to finish the season strongly.”
Andrew Watson, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK, said: “We got caught out in qualifying in the changing conditions. It was a really tough session and pot luck to be honest. Starting at the back for race one was far from ideal, and then we had the big crash into the tyre stack at the chicane. If the tyres hadn’t been there, it wouldn’t have been an issue, but they were. That was such a shame as I was really getting into the mix, but these things happen and the team did an unbelievable job to make repairs and get the car back out in time for race two.
“I want to thank the entire Speedworks Motorsport crew for their support, hard work and professionalism. My Toyota felt really good in the following two races and we made progress and scored points in both, so we salvaged the weekend well.
“Obviously it wasn’t what we wanted overall, but we’ll pick ourselves up and go again for the final two events. This championship is super-competitive and you have to get everything right; we didn’t execute very well at Donington, but there’s clearly some pace in the car and everyone still has their head held high. Let’s see if we can end the season in style at Silverstone and Brands Hatch.”
