TORDOFF SIGNS UP WITH AMD TEAM IN A HONDA

Championship runner-up in 2016 will partners cot butcher next year

Former series runner-up Sam Tordoff will join Rory Butcher in Amdtuning.com’s British Touring Car Championship assault in 2019.

The pair will race the squad’s new Honda Civic Type R machines, which AMD acquired from Eurotech Racing at the end of the 2018 campaign.

Butcher, 31, will return for a second season with AMD. He took a best finish of sixth in 2018.

Tordoff, who was the championship runner-up in 2016 with WSR in a BMW, was a race winner this year in a Motorbase Performance Ford Focus on his way to 11th in the standings.

Tordoff, 29, said: “I’m sure there will be some people who are surprised by this move and while there is some appeal in going into 2019 as an underdog, the reality is that I have one aim and that is to fight for the championship title.

“AMD have put a lot of investment into not only getting the cars, but in strengthening the team behind the scenes in order to move to the next level and there can be no excuses.”

Butcher, who is the brother-in-law of three-time BTCC champion Gordon Shedden, said: “You only have to look at the stats for the Honda in recent years to see how well it has performed and on paper, there is huge potential for us to do some big things on track in 2019. It’s a big step up for both the team and I, and I’m confident that this package will give us a great chance of success. It would be silly of me to not aim for podiums and race wins.”