HUFF SWAPS TO CITROEN FOR WTCC
World Touring Car champion Rob Huff has moved away from the Honda team for the 2017 season to race a privateer Citroen C-elysee in the championship with the Munnich Motorsport team.
Huff, who clinched the overall crown with the factory Chevrolet team back in 2012, switched to Honda for last year’s campaign after two seasons with Lada Sport.
He won the opening race of the year at Paul Ricard, and finished sixth in the championship with a further five podium finishes to his name.
But, despite saying his Honda switch had been taken with a view to fighting for a second title in 2017 with Citroen having ended its works programme in the championship, the 37-year-old has completed a move back to Munnich Motorsport. Huff previously drove for the team in 2013.
Huff will handle an ex-factory TC1 C-elysee this season, the model in which Jose Maria Lopez claimed the last three drivers’ championship crowns.
“I’m overjoyed to be rejoining my very good friends at Munnich Motorsport,” said Huff.
“Having had a very successful year in 2013, we are excited to come back together in a much stronger position, with more experience and of course with the ultra-competitive Citroen package. “When [team owner] Rene Munnich approached me with the idea of a Huff-citroen-munnich Motorsport attack on the world championship for 2017, it was an opportunity that I simply could not pass on. “[It will be] a year where it’s quite possible for a private team to be world champions, and that is our goal.” Huff previously raced a Munnich-run Super 2000spec SEAT Leon in 2013 after Chevrolet ended its manufacturer involvement in the WTCC after Huff ’s 2012 glory.
The team has campaigned RMLbuilt Chevrolet Cruzes for the previous three seasons, and last year it ran two-time British Touring Car champion James Thompson for eight of the 11 rounds.
Honda has replaced Huff with Super GT racer and team owner Ryo Michigami, who made a one-off appearance in the WTCC at Motegi last year in a fourth factory Civic.
The Japanese driver will join Tiago Monteiro and Norbert Michelisz at the Honda squad, the pair having both been retained for the 2017 season.