Rob Huff was an innocent victim in a dramatic crash at the first corner of the opening FIA World Touring Car Championship race at Valencia, but bounced back in the second race to come from 26th place on the grid to finish 13th.

The 27-year old Cambridgeshire driver was aiming for victory around the twisty 14 corner Circuito Ricardo Tormo in Spain, but his chances were made slightly more difficult even before he turned a wheel, as 25kgs was added to the base weight of the works Chevrolet Lacetti WTCs, following the car's race winning performance last time out at Zandvoort in Holland.

Despite the extra weight and an understeer problem, Rob qualified 9th out of 27 drivers, just +0.365 seconds off the fastest pole time. The competition was so close that less than one second separated the top 19 drivers, and had Rob been just a tenth of a second quicker he would have qualified 4th and started from the second row, rather than from the 5th row.

"I had a lot of understeer which I just can't explain," said Rob. "Nothing we changed seemed to cure it. It's a shame because this is the best car we've ever had and Valencia is a track I normally qualify very good at."

Race day started well, with Rob setting the second fastest time in warm-up, just behind pole- sitter James Thompson (Alfa Romeo). He knew that his Chevrolet had a good race set-up, but a spectacular six-car accident saw Rob become an innocent victim of a first corner accident for the third year running.

In 2005, a collision with Rickard Rydell sent Rob hurtling into the gravel trap; in 2006 Andy Priaulx and Gabriele Tarquini hit him off the track at the same spot and this year a rolling start saw the biggest and most dramatic crash of them all. Tarquini collided with Tiago Monteiro and the subsequent chain of events saw Rob, Roberto Colciago, Alex Zanardi and Felix Porteiro all come to a halt in the gravel trap with badly damaged cars.

The team did a great job to repair Rob's car in time for the afternoon's second race, and Rob made a sensational start from the back row of the grid. As the cars ahead dived for the inside line at Turn 1, Rob overtook nine of them around the outside of the corner and continued to charge through the field to move up to 13th place by the end of the opening lap!

Rob set the fastest lap of the race on lap three (1:45.902 / 84.59mph) and had moved up to 9th by lap four, as all three works Chevrolet Lacetti WTCs of Alain Menu, Nicola Larini, and Rob raced nose-to-tail. In an exciting 13 lap race filled with overtaking manoeuvres, Rob was forced off the circuit and through a gravel trap when trying to overtake Jordi Gené, dropping him back to 15th. In the remaining five laps, Rob managed to move up 13th – one place ahead of his team-mate Menu.

"Let's just forget about the first race," said Rob. "Lightning does seem to strike three times in the same place! The second race I enjoyed very much. I was worried at the start because the red starting lights were already on, so I thought I had missed my engineer's call for the five- second board. I kept the clutch dipped on and off for some 15-20 seconds, fearing I would burn it before the race start. In the end I had the best start ever and I just catapulted through the field. When I had moved into the points I got swiped by another competitor forcing me to run wide on the dirty part of the track. But fastest race lap shows how good the car really is."

Rob's next race will be around the famous street circuit in Pau – located in the south-west region of France, overlooking the Pyrenées mountain range – on June 2/3. Pau is to the WTCC what Monaco is to F1, and like most European street circuits it is very narrow, twisty and bumpy. Rob has never raced there before, and has only seen the circuit via some F3 in-car footage on YouTube!

As his Valencia race car stayed on in Spain for a day's testing (with Menu driving), Rob will be reunited in Pau with his Brno winning car (WTCC race in the Czech Republic, September 2006) – which has been completely rebuilt with all the very latest components.

Valencia Race 1 Results

1.	J Thompson	Alfa Romeo 156	15 laps in 29m37s113 (Ave: 121.69kph)
2.	N Larini	Chevrolet Lacetti	+ 2s839
3.	Y Muller	SEAT Leon	+ 4s237
4.	J Gené	SEAT Leon	+ 4s810
5.	A Priaulx	BMW 320si	+ 5s492
9.	A Menu	Chevrolet Lacetti	+ 16s216
DNF	R Huff	Chevrolet Lacetti	0 laps (Accident)

Valencia Race 2 Results

1.	J Thompson	Alfa Romeo 156	13 laps in 23m12s920 (Ave: 134.56kph)
2.	J Müller	BMW 320si	+ 1s811
3.	A Priaulx	BMW 320si	+ 2s266
4.	Y Muller	SEAT Leon	+ 3s224
5.	N Larini	Chevrolet Lacetti	+ 4s716
13.	R Huff	Chevrolet Lacetti	+ 17s639

Drivers Points Standings After Race 6 Of 22
1. J Müller (BMW), 31pts; 2. A Priaulx (BMW), 31; 3. A Farfus (BMW) 28; 4. N Larini (Chevrolet) 25; 5. G Tarquini (SEAT) 21;…9. A Menu (Chevrolet) 10; …14. R Huff (Chevrolet) 4;…

Manufacturers Standings After Race 6 Of 22
1. BMW, 81pts; 2. SEAT, 62; 3. Chevrolet, 50; 4. Alfa Romeo, 34.