First win of the season for Butcher at Silverstone

RORY BUTCHER steered himself to his first win of the season – and three podiums – at the British Touring Car Championship event at Silverstone at the weekend.

The Toyota Corolla GR Sport driver outscored all of his rivals at the home of British motor racing

In qualifying, Butcher replicated his performance from 2021 when he claimed pole position among the 29 contenders in the UK’s premier motor racing series.

In front of the live ITV4 television cameras and a capacity trackside crowd the next day, Butcher – whose father, Derek, is the owner and CEO of Knockhill Racing Circuit – executed a textbook start to launch immediately into the lead in race one, pulling clear by almost three-and-ahalf seconds at one stage before his pursuers began narrowing the gap.

A mid-race safety car intervention then eroded his advantage entirely but, despite coming under sustained pressure subsequently from Jake Hill, Butcher held his nerve superbly to secure a milestone 10th career BTCC triumph.

With significantly less hybrid power at his disposal in race two as a penalty for his success, the Fifer was always going to be facing a tall order to repeat that winning feat.

However, after another excellent getaway from pole, he established a margin of more than a second over the pack behind when the safety car was summoned again on lap six due to an incident further down the order.

After the re-start, Hill began crawling all over the back of the Corolla in a carbon copy of race one, with 2019 BTCC Independents’ Champion and Jack Sears Trophy winner Butcher ceding to the inevitable on lap 12.

Butcher then had to turn his attentions to fending off brother-init law and triple title-winner Gordon Shedden for second, which he did all the way to the chequered flag.

From seventh on the partially-reversed grid for the day’s finale, the 35-year-old exploited a bright start and gained four places, going on to hassle defending champion Ash Sutton throughout.

Third place not only completed a podium hat-trick – for the first time in his career – but also lifts Butcher into the top five in the title standings ahead of the season finale at Brands Hatch next month.

Butcher said: “You can only dream of weekends like that – it had been a long road since our last victory and we’d been needing it all year.

“I was getting a bit bored of being reminded that I was the only driver inside the top 10 in the championship standings without a race win to my name this season!

“Silverstone has been really good to me over the past couple of years, and off the back of our performance and result there 12 months ago, expectations were high. My family were there to celebrate with me and I was delighted for the whole team – it was great to repay them for all their hard work this season with three sets of silverware.”