NO BRITISH RACE BUT PLENTY OF BRITS IN THE PADDOCK
There might not be a home round of the WTCR – and no plans to change that fact any time soon – but there is a strong British connection.
Yvan Muller, BTCC champion in 2003, is still going strong aged 52. His 25-yearold nephew, Yann Ehrlacher – his sister Cathy Muller’s son – claimed the WTCR title for a second season running in 2021 with Brit Kevin Berry his race engineer for the third year in a row.
Esteban Guerrieri, a former British F3 ace who’s called Northampton and Sheffield his home in the past, has won more WTCR races than his rivals with 10 victories to his name. The Argentinian has been a title contender in each of the last four seasons, while his engineer, Dave Scott, is a Brit.
Then there’s Cambridgeshire’s
Rob Huff, who tops the WTCR Trophy standings for independent racers after the Pau weekend. The 2012
WTCC champion, 42, is in his second season driving for the Hungarian Zengo Motorsport team after skipping the 2020 season to race touring cars in Sweden.
Although funds are on the scarce side, the Budapest squad took a win double at the 2021 finale in Sochi and team owner Zoltan Zengo has a habit of finding budget at the 11th hour.
Indeed, Huff didn’t have a race engine for Pau until calls were made and a new unit was despatched from
Cupra’s Barcelona HQ the day before qualifying got underway.
There’s also a British flavour when it comes to the management side. The FIA’s main man, working under FIA Touring Car Commission president Alan Gow, is Stuart Murray from Northern Ireland. The deputy race director, Stuart Latham, is a Brummie, while the co-ordinator, Fiona Rees, is from Wales and daughter of former National championship-winning co-driver Ken Rees, once Subaru’s WRC team manager.