AIMING TO GATECRASH THE BTCC’S ELITE
Howsamtordoffandrorybutcherwanttotakeamdtothenextlevel.by Matt james
Sam Tordoff’s decision to ally himself with Amdtuning.com’s ambitious British Touring Car Championship programme with its newly acquired Honda Civic Type R was a surprise. For a multiple race winner, joining a team which has yet to taste glory seemed an odd decision.
However, it was driven by a deep-seated desire to sample what has been one of the best cars on the grid for years.
“I have always wanted to race a Honda Civic FK2,” says Tordoff, who was beaten to the 2016 championship by Gordon Shedden driving the same example of the Japanese hatchback. “I know it is a good car. There was never a way in at Dynamics, which runs the factory Civics, and, I didn’t want to go to any of the teams that were running the customer cars at the time.”
But that chance has come now. After his narrow defeat in 2016, Tordoff, who had raced a WSR BMW 125i M Sport in that season, took a year away from tin-tops to battle in British GT, but returned to the BTCC with Motorbase Performance in 2018. He qualified the Ford Focus RS on the front row of the grid for the first race of the season at Brands and eventually took a win at Silverstone towards the end of the year, but it was a campaign blighted by bad luck.
“I didn’t leave Motorbase Performance – we just couldn’t put a deal together, and that is the way motorsport goes sometimes,” says Tordoff. “I had been speaking to the team and we thought it was on for 2019, but it just fell apart. I had also been talking with [Amdtuning.com boss] Shaun Hollamby for a while, and asked him to keep me in the loop. I knew he was looking at buying the Hondas from Eurotech Racing and we kept in touch. Things began to get serious in last November, and it all just clicked together.”
Tordoff had tested for Amdtuning.com
in one of its Audi S3s at the end of 2017 when he was looking to return to the BTCC but opted for Motorbase instead as AMD was going through an expansion. “Now that I am here and it isn’t as much of a jump as some onlookers think. There were several things that I wanted, and we were able to make them happen,” explains Tordoff, who is the group operations manager of the car dealership JCT600. “I was able to get engineer Craig Porley, who worked with Eurotech last year, I have brought [experienced BTCC man] Malcolm Swetnam from Motorbase to be team manager and I have brought a number one mechanic and a data engineer. I have created my own group around me, and that is very important. Also, having Rory Butcher as my team-mate was vital – I insisted with Shaun that I wanted him there. I wanted a competitive team-mate and Rory fits the bill perfectly.”
That means that Tordoff’s title fight with Shedden has come back into focus. Butcher is Shedden’s brother-in-law and the threetime champ has driven the car many times. The advice from the other side of the garage will be useful – Tordoff will be working with Shedden, rather than against him.
“Gordon and I are friends,” says Tordoff. “We would be silly to ignore what he can offer. Having Rory was so important too and I’ve found him such a pleasure to work with. We co-operate on things – even commercial deals – and there is a good feeling.”
Tordoff will fulfil his ambition in the Honda, has assembled a brains trust at AMD and has Butcher pushing him hard in the same operation. The ingredients are there to truly flourish in 2019. ■ A couple of sixth placed finishes might not seem like much of a return from Rory Butcher’s 2018 British Touring Car Championship campaign, but look a little deeper: he was in one of the oldest cars on the grid and in his first full season at this level.
He was also with Amdtuning, which had just expanded to run four cars for the first time. If you look in terms of the levels of experience and the machinery at his disposal, Butcher’s was probably one of the stand out performances of the season.
Not that the Scot will admit as much, because he has already got his eyes looking firmly forwards. Remaining with the Amdtuning squad was a no brainer given the strong relationship forged between the two last season, but now the son of Knockhill owner Derek has the chance to make real progress up the grid in the ex-eurotech Racing Honda Civic Type R.
“Last year it was a difficult season,” admits Butcher. “When you have to be happy and satisfied with just breaking into the top 10, it is not normal for a competitive driver. But that is just the way British Touring Cars are and I think we got the most out of the package that we had at the time.”
Finishing 17th in the points did turn heads for the ex-porsche and GT racer, even if he did feel frustrated with his own results. The ultra-competitive BTCC is a true dogfight in the midfield, and that is where Butcher spent most of his time.
“Through my career I have learned that what happens at the front of the field is very different to what happens where I was in the midfield after qualifying,” says Butcher. “The guys at the front are perhaps a bit more comfortable. They understand that if they are going to make one more place for a couple more points, then it is maybe not so much a do or die move. Where I was [in the pack] last year, the guys were desperate and we were trying to fight for that last point. Some of the stuff that goes on back there: I hope I can break away from that with the Honda.”
Alongside the improvement in the equipment, there will be a change in the way Butcher approaches the season too. Alongside experienced team-mate Sam Tordoff, he is ready to play a longer game.
“Going in to this season, we are definitely taking a step up a gear and I am really excited to drive alongside [new team-mate] Sam [Tordoff] – to have someone with his experience to bounce ideas off and hopefully we can both progress,” Butcher says.
“The package is there for us to do the job. If we are not winning races, we have to look back and be disappointed. I am not looking as far ahead as the last round, but it is so important just to score points. Look at what [eventual champion] Colin Turkington did last year – he was just collecting points without too many wins. It is a bigger picture. As much as I want to win races, I am thinking about that too.”
And part of that bigger picture is the help that comes from the family, with three-time champion and brother-in-law Gordon Shedden firmly in his corner.
Shedden, for his part, is keen to help Butcher learn in the right way and will not be there to spoon-feed answers to his family member, but can certainly assist when it comes to giving a general direction for the set-up of the machine.
“I am definitely going to pick Gordon’s brains,” says Butcher. “He has got fantastic experience of the Civic and he will be on hand to help. That is going to be a leg-up that we might not have had, and I am going to exploit it – why wouldn’t I?”
So the equipment is right for Butcher to build on the progress he made last season, and he has firmly established himself as a favourite within the Amdtuning.com team already. It seems that Butcher has found a place he wants to be for a long time: both with the BTCC and with the team.