TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK duo Rob Huff and Andrew Watson have their sights solidly set on a strong finish to the 2024 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship this weekend (5-6 October), around one of the country’s most iconic circuits.
Brands Hatch’s 2.43-mile ‘GP’ layout played host to Formula 1’s British Grand Prix on no fewer than 12 occasions between 1964 and 1986, and in just a few days’ time, it will bring down the curtain on another compelling and utterly enthralling BTCC campaign.
Former FIA World Touring Car Champion Huff enters the event sitting eighth in the Drivers’ standings amongst the 22 high-calibre protagonists, only five points adrift of the top seven, which he will be looking to conquer behind the wheel of his British-built, Speedworks Motorsport-prepared Toyota Corolla GR Sport.
While the Cambridgeshire ace – coming to the end of his first full season in the UK’s premier motorsport series in two decades – has never previously competed around the ‘GP’ loop in the BTCC, he was three times a podium-finisher there in the WTCC between 2007 and 2010.
Team-mate Watson similarly boasts a strong previous record at the track, having triumphed at Brands ‘GP’ in both the Ginetta GT4 SuperCup – twice – and the Silver Cup category of the GT Series Sprint Cup. The Northern Irishman – the BTCC’s outgoing Jack Sears Trophy winner – also reached the rostrum there in Ginetta Juniors, and is targeting another champagne celebration this weekend after his promising pace this year has all too often been undone by ill-fortune.
Following Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session at 15:40 – streamed on ITV Sport’s YouTube channel – every moment of Sunday’s doorhandle-to-doorhandle action will be broadcast live and in high-definition on ITV4, beginning at 10:30. All three races will additionally be shown on the ITV Sport TikTok channel, in the UK and globally.
Christian Dick, Team Principal, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK, said: “The BTCC season finale is always an enjoyable weekend, whether you’re fighting for a title or simply aiming to sign off on a high. While we’re not in championship contention this year, that is very much our goal for 2025 so the focus is firmly set on a strong end to the campaign to send us into the winter break with momentum on our side.
“The Corolla has gone well around the ‘GP’ layout in the past, achieving a number of podium finishes there in recent years. It has also won at five very different circuits already this season, and there is no reason at all why Brands Hatch should not be the sixth.
“Despite being the third-longest lap on the calendar, we fully expect qualifying to be as close and competitive as ever, and we will need to make sure we are on-point and on-track at the right moment to get ourselves as far up the grid as we can. The weather clearly has the potential to throw a curveball into the mix too, so it will be vital to react swiftly and sensibly to changing scenarios, and then keep our noses as clean as possible as we navigate the inevitable chaos, twists and turns of BTCC finals day!”
Rob Huff, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK, said: “Where has the season gone?! It’s wild that we’re at the final weekend already, but what a season it’s been! I’m really looking forward to going back to Brands Hatch, especially on the legendary ‘GP’ loop, which is a hell of a track! It’s brilliant, and pretty much a combination of everything we’ve seen so far this year, which should make for a very exciting finale.
“For me, the circuits where you can really stretch the car’s legs are more enjoyable to drive and tend to generate better racing. It’s also very easy to make a mistake out the back of the lap through the high-speed sections with all the bumps and kerbs – you really need to show them some respect.
“Weather-wise, we’ve had a fair bit of rain recently, and being Brands Hatch in October, I don’t expect any different this weekend! We learnt a lot at Silverstone in the wet conditions, which should hopefully stand us in good stead and we seem to be strongest when it’s either fully wet or fully dry, so that’s what we want – Option A or Option B, and nothing in-between!
“I really want to go out and get a win in the final event, and while the top six positions in the championship are beyond reach, seventh is still up for grabs. That in itself might not be anything to write home about, but it would obviously be nice to move up a place to end my first full season back in the BTCC on a positive note and give ourselves something to really build upon in 2025.”
Andrew Watson, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK, said: “I’m really looking forward to the weekend. Brands Hatch ‘GP’ is a great track that I think everybody enjoys, and coming from such a short and compact circuit as Silverstone’s ‘National’ layout, it poses a completely different kind of challenge.
“It’s very tight and fast out the back, with blind apexes and exits and not much margin for error, and it can be a tricky place to get right. So much of it is about momentum, and you need to have a lot of confidence in the car to really extract the best out of the lap.
“Hybrid will make a bit of a difference in qualifying; we’ve seen that all year, so we have to make sure we really maximise our full allowance. As ever, it will be a case of using free practice to figure out where we can get the most bang for our buck, and then exploiting that in qualifying.
“It’s been a difficult season, but we’ve shown good pace at times; we’ve just struggled to translate it into solid results. We know we can qualify up towards the front – what we need is to convert that into good finishes, and there’s no reason why we can’t. We have nothing to lose, and one thing’s for sure – both myself and the team will be giving it our all to end on a high.”
