Butcher secures deal for full-time BTCC tilt

Fifer Rory Butcher has completed a last-minute deal for a full-season campaign in the British Touring Car Championship.

The 31-year-old will return to the highly competitive series in an AMD Tuning.com MG when the flag drops on the April 7-8 Brands Hatch opener.

Butcher will partner Tom Boardman in the AutoAid/RCIB Insurance Racing team’s second MG6 GT having made a BTCC debut last season when he was called up by the Motorbase team for the final four rounds in place of Luke Davenport after he was badly injured in a qualifying accident at Croft.

Despite no testing, Butcher snared a pair of top 10 finishes on his home turf Knockhil debut.

His call-up maintains a strong Fife family connection to the championship following brotherin-law and triple BTCC champ Gordon Shedden’s departure to take up a Team WRT drive in the World Touring Car Cup,

Butcher has previously secured multiple race wins in the BTCCsupporting Porsche Carrera Cup GB and was second in the GT class of the European Le Mans Series.

Butcher said:“I was determined to try and get a place on the grid this year to build on what I learned from the final four rounds of 2017 and to start building a long-term BTCC career.

“In January, it looked like it wasn’t going to be possible but with a lot of effort from the team and my sponsors we’ve been able to pull together a deal, which I’m absolutely delighted about.

“The BTCC is such a strong series, particularly this season, that it is hard to make too many predictions about what we can expect to achieve, but the team has shown what it can do in recent seasons and my goal is to regularly fight inside the points and push for some strong results.

“The series is the very pinnacle of British Motorsport and I’m really excited about the prospect of a full season on track with AmD in 2018.”

Rory Butcher: top 10 finishes at Knockhill last season.