FAMILY AFFAIR FOR FLASH AS TOURERS RACE TO KNOCKHILL
British Touring Car champion Gordon Shedden is heading to home territory this weekend as the spectacular BTCC comes to Scotland.
Shedden will be looking to extend his championship lead after a successful outing at Snetterton two weeks ago.
But things will have a distinct family feel for the Auchterarder racer as his brother-in-law, Rory Butcher joins him on the grid. This week it was announced that Butcher had been signed up to drive the third car for Team Shredded Wheat Racing with DUO.
The 30-year-old from Kirkcaldy has previous raced in GT and Porsche Carrera Cup championships but this weekend will be his first outing in a touring car.
“The car has only just been built and it’s my first time in touring cars so it’s a kind of shakedown for the car and me;” said Butcher.
“I’m absolutely buzzing though. When I first started racing, I looked up to the touring cars and it was my ambition to reach the BTCC grid. “Although my racing career has ended up going across to sports car racing and the GT world, switching over to the BTCC is a dream come-true.
“Obviously it’s got close relations to the family with Gordon being my brotherin-law and it’s exciting to have the chance to join him on the grid for the rest of this season.”
A bumper crowd of more than 15,000 motorsport fans are expected at Knockhill this weekend as this prestigious world class event rolls into Scotland this for its one and only annual visit.
Knockhill director of Events Stuart Gray said “Such is the scale of the event, many of the support classes now test from the Monday onwards so it has now become a seven-day event, with the main days being qualifying on Saturday 12 and race day on Sunday 13.
“With an entourage of some 2,500 personnel, drivers, mechanics, hospitality staff and PR teams, the event is a huge economic boost for the area as well as being the single biggest event of the year for Knockhill.
“With Gordon doing so well, and local driver Aiden Moffat from Edinburgh now being a race winner as well, there is a huge amount of local interest for the event.” Around the main event of the touring cars a full progamme of support races will also be running, featuring the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, Ginetta sports cars and the British F4 single-seaters.