The power of two as WTCR race-winning team goes for gold with talented duo
Huff’s FIA World Touring Car title pedigree to complement Nagy’s youthful promise
CUPRA-powered squad gets set for Circuit de Pau-Ville season opener
Race-winning WTCR − FIA World Touring Car Cup team Zengő Motorsport’s tweaked driver line-up is a clear demonstration of the focus it’s putting into its pursuit of more on-track success in 2022.
After completing the 2021 WTCR season with a win double, the Hungarian squad has trimmed its effort from four to two cars, re-signed former FIA World Touring Car Championship winner Rob Huff and recruited Dániel Nagy to drive its Goodyear-equipped CUPRA Leon Competición race cars.
And with the 2022 season getting underway on the streets of Pau with WTCR Clean Fuels For All Race of France next week (May 7-8), Zengő Motorsport’s confidence is high.
“I don’t want to say what we can achieve because we will see in the end of the season, but we are very confident with our two drivers, Rob Huff and Dani Nagy,” said Zengő Motorsport Team Principal Zoltán Zengő.
“We have the experience, talent and knowledge of Huffy and we know he can bring everything out of the car and everything out of himself. At the same time, he will motivate Dani and he will help him grow and help him find his precision on track. We believe this is a very good line-up to have a former champion and a young Hungarian talent in our team.”
Zengő, who helped to talent-spot 2019 King of WTCR Norbert Michelisz before setting him on the road to FIA World Touring Car stardom, continued: “We know we can focus on what we’ve been working on in the last years and we are going to work on showing and proving that what we did in Sochi was not an accident and we can do it again. With two cars we can focus what we had for four cars on two cars and this should bring us more rewards.”
Strong season-showdown speed hands Huff a high
Briton Huff, 42, won the WTCC title in 2012 and has three WTCR wins to date, including last season’s final round. “There’s the age-old saying that you’re only good as your last race and we won both of them. With Zengő we’re both old enough and wise enough with enough experience to know that it’s going to be a difficult start to the season because things have come together quite late on the surface, but there’s nothing that’s out of our reach.
“We’re confident with the car we have, we’re confident with the ability we have altogether and it’s our job to put everything we can into the first race and go from there and that’s what we intend to do. But the WTCR is a world series and we’re up against the best drivers and teams in the world on the most challenging circuits in the world.
“It’s never easy but between myself and the Zengő team we have full confidence in what we’re doing and we’re going to do everything we can to show that confidence on track.”
Nagy’s patience rewarded with first WTCR season
After scoring a WTCR podium as a wildcard racer at WTCR Race of Hungary in 2018, Hungarian Nagy gets a full season to showcase his ability.
Part of Zengő Motorsport’s CUPRA-powered PURE ETCR bid in 2021, the 24-year-old is transferring his potential to the WTCR. “I was waiting for a chance in the last couple of years to drive a full season in WTCR but it never came and when I thought there was not the chance to race this year I decided I would stop trying this year. Then I got a phone call from a good friend, Zoltán Zengő, asking me if I would join his team and Rob Huff in trying to continue his dream of putting Hungarian engineers and young drivers to the top of the touring car field around the world and I said ‘yes’.
“Rob was always really nice to me even when I was a backrunner in WTCC in an old car. He’s already helping me a lot and it’s a wonderful chance for me to learn from one of the biggest touring car legends. It means a lot to me and hopefully it will help me to continue my learning curve that we started a couple of years ago.
“My goal is to win at least one race but motorsport is not easy and for sure we’ll have to be careful in the beginning to get to know the car, the tyre and some of the race tracks. I want to have the feeling we have done everything possible.”
