Brands Hatch Marks 100th Touring Car Race For Huff

The Chevrolet WTCC team will play a home match at Brands Hatch next weekend. The first round of the second half of the 2008 WTCC season will not only take the Chevrolet Lacetti drivers to the track nearest the RML team’s base, but also to the track where Chevrolet scored their first ever WTCC win in 2006, at the same time achieving Chevrolet’s first ever outright win in an FIA sanctioned series. Swiss driver Alain Menu – with 36 wins to his name the most successful driver in the BTCC – claimed that famous first win in very wet conditions, and won again last year. For him, Brands Hatch is as much his home race as it is to the team or to Rob Huff, who will be celebrating his 100 th touring car start in Kent. With Menu being the lightest of the Chevrolets, he is of course keen to make it three Brands wins in a row.

QUOTES

Rob Huff: “The first of the two races will be my 100 th touring car start, so it would be a delightto celebrate that with a win, especially since Brands is also the track where I scored my veryfirst touring car victory in 2004. Realistically, of course, it will be very difficult to win with thekilos I’m carrying, as Brands is one of those tracks where it hurts to run heavy. So if I can baganother eight or nine points it will have been a very good weekend for me. Should it rain, as itsometimes does in the UK, then it will be a bit easier for me, but also for all the other heavies,so I don’t really mind what the weather does. But obviously racing at home in front of fans andfamily is always special, so I’m going to put on a good show.”

Alain Menu: “After Estoril I will be relatively light at Brands Hatch, carrying only the 23kgsballast resulting from my 23 points in the championship. Of course, Brands has always beenquite good to me in the past, both when I was racing in the BTCC and now in the WTCC withChevrolet. I can't say that I will win for the third year in a row, but definitely I expect a lot fromthis event and I aim at being on the podium. It will all depend on how things go in qualifying.Last year, I was on the pole and I won. Would I have qualified second, I would have finishedsecond, so qualifying will be very, very important. Regarding weather conditions, I would preferto have dry races, but we will take what comes, and it will be the same for everybody. I spenttwo days testing in Pembrey this week, it was useful, but it's clear that at this stage of the cardevelopment, we can only gain some hundredths of a second here and there. It's more amatter of how you feel with the car rather than pure performance."

Nicola Larini: “I am very motivated after the good results we obtained in Estoril. Brands Hatchis a circuit that suits us well and it is the home track of the team, we have always been at thetop there. Of course, with 50kgs of ballast I will not be in the best position, I will have theheaviest Lacetti ever seen this year, but my aim is to do well and never give up, as always! Andfor the rest, I personally hope it will rain!

Mark Busfield: “We had a good two-day test at Pembrey this week after Estoril, with Alain doing the driving in Nicola's ex race car, which has now become the T-car, as Nicola has switched to our original test car for Estoril. We worked a lot on set up and other fine details and came away with a good feeling. As for Alain's extinguisher issue in Portugal, we have worked with the manufacturer to establish how the extinguisher was empty and discovered it was because of a faulty seal. We had a different system installed at Pembrey and will now use this for the remainder of the season.”

BRANDS HATCH RACE SCHEDULE (Local time = CET minus 1 hour)

Saturday, 26 th July 200809.00-09.30 (10.00-10.30 CET) Free Practice 111.10-11.40 (12.10-12.40 CET) Free Practice 215.00-15.30 (16.00-16.30 CET) QualifyingSunday, 27 th July 200810.00-10.15 (11.00-11.15 CET) Warm up12.05-12.30 (13.05-13.30 CET) Race 1 (14 laps = 51.842kms) (Rolling start)13.20-13.45 (14.20-14.45 CET) Race 2 (14 laps = 51.842kms) (Standing start)DRIVERS POINTS STANDINGS AFTER RACE 12 OF 241. G Tarquini (SEAT), 58 points; 2. Y Muller (SEAT), 55; 3. R Rydell (SEAT), 48; 4. A Priaulx(BMW), 43; 5. R Huff (Chevrolet), 36;… 7. N Larini (Chevrolet), 30;… 11. A Menu (Chevrolet),23;…MANUFACTURERS POINTS STANDINGS AFTER RACE 12 OF 24

1. SEAT, 172 points; 2. BMW, 135; 3. Chevrolet, 115; 4. Honda, 19.SUCCESS BALLAST FOR BRANDS HATCH

1. Y Muller (SEAT), 70kgs; 2. R Rydell (SEAT), 68kgs; 3. G Tarquini (SEAT), 58kgs; 4. A Priaulx(BMW), 53kgs; 5. N Larini (Chevrolet), 50kgs; 6. T Monteiro (SEAT), 49kgs; 7. R Huff(Chevrolet), 46kgs; 8. J Gené (SEAT), 34kgs; 9. R Dahlgren (Volvo), 30kgs; 10. A Bitur (BMW),30kgs; 11. L Beirao da Veiga (SEAT), 30kgs; 12. K Poulsen (BMW) 30kgs; 13. J Müller (BMW),28kgs; 14. F Porteiro (BMW), 28kgs; 15. A Farfus (BMW), 27kgs; 16. A Menu (Chevrolet), 23kgs;17. A Zanardi (BMW), 18kgs; 18. T Coronel (SEAT), 10kgs; 19. J Thompson (Honda), 3kgs; 20. OTielemans (BMW), 1kg.

BRANDS HATCH WTCC ON TV

In Europe, qualifying and the warm-up are broadcasted live on Eurosport 2. The races arebroadcasted live on Eurosport International.