Huff aiming for WTCC glory

Eurosport - Wed, 11 Feb 17:54:00 2009

Rob Huff is aiming for the World Touring Car Championship crown after his fine campaign in 2008.

FIA WTCC 2008 Macau Huff - 0

The Englishman secured two victories and four further rostrum finishes in a watershed season last time out, vaulting into third place in the title chase - just a single point shy of the runner-up laurels in a campaign which SEAT dominated.

He was also comfortably clear of highly-rated and more experienced Chevrolet team-mates Alain Menu and Nicola Larini while stealing away the mantle of three-times world champion Andy Priaulx as the top-placed British driver in the series.

"I'd obviously love to (win the championship): that's the ultimate goal and what we're all working towards, and I think it's definitely a possible achievement," the 29-year-old told Crash Radio.

"If I didn't feel it was possible there would be no point in being out there. Hopefully we can bring the championship home to the UK this year and to Chevrolet for the first time.

"Chevrolet took a big gamble on me back at the end of 2004, and I'm just trying to prove to them that they made the right decision in choosing me.

"We've got to make the car faster all the time because the diesel is very, very strong - the package that SEAT have got full stop, with the engine, the chassis and the drivers is very good.

"They blitzed everyone last year: for Yvan (Muller) to win it by 37 points, considering we only get 10 points for a race win, was an awesome feat.

"He's a hell of a driver, but he had the best car too. The FIA have obviously tried to slow it down a little bit, which needed to be done because the car was ridiculously fast and almost impossible to overtake.

"SEAT are going to be what everyone's focusing on in 2009. You never know, though: BMW have had a very strong package for the last five years, and you don't know the development that they've been putting in so they might surprise everyone - or the Cruze might come out on top.

"(The new Cruze) is a lot more stable than the old car and it's a lot more sensitive to set-up changes. Obviously we've got a lot of development work to do with it, but straight out of the box we were pretty impressed.

"We're a little bit behind with the whole testing programme because of what's happening in the economy at the moment, but we've just got to keep our heads down, work hard and hopefully we'll be on the pace when we get to the first race on March 8. "

Crash.Net / Eurosport

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  1. Pity they will be withdrawing from racing half way­ through the season, if not before. Huffy is good, but­ he better be looking through some shop windows too,­ This manufacturer is going belly up

    From EleanaV, on Wed 11 Feb 7:39PM
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