Rory Butcher: ‘I feel like we’ve genuinely turned a corner’

Rory Butcher feels that he and his Toyota Gazoo Racing UK team have ‘really turned a corner’ in the British Touring Car Championship, after the Scot picked up his first win of the year last weekend at Oulton Park.

Until heading to Cheshire, Butcher had only managed to secure one podium finish so far in 2021, his first year with the Speedworks Motorsport-run team.

But the 34-year-old found some pace in his Toyota Corolla at Oulton Park, going second quickest in free practice and then qualifying his car in third for race one, less than a tenth shy of pole position.

Although Butcher slipped to fourth in race one, after losing out to Adam Morgan’s BMW, he had also been the only driver in the top five to run the less favourable medium compound tyre in the opening encounter.

Despite carrying 48 kg of success ballast into race two, Butcher leapt into third at the start of the race past Morgan, before claiming the lead later in the lap at Island Bend when he moved on the Team Dynamics duo of Gordon Shedden and Daniel Rowbottom.

Thereafter Butcher controlled the race, winning by over a second on his way to a seventh career BTCC win.

With the maximum 75 kg of success ballast and in ninth on the grid for the reversed grid third race, Butcher had been set for another points-paying position until he was innocently taken out by the brake-less Infiniti of Carl Boardley, an incident which ultimately called time on the race early.

Despite the weekend ending with a crash, Butcher was delighted with the overall results of the weekend, which have seen the gap to the top of the drivers’ standings cut from 56 entering the weekend to 32 leaving it.

“This has been a long time coming,” said an elated Butcher. “I had a little spring in my step arriving at Oulton after taking such a big leap forward at Brands Hatch and the tyre test, and we really hit the ground running in free practice.

“I went into qualifying in optimistic mood and managed to piece together a very good lap on my second run.

“For a moment, I thought we were on for pole, but my brother-in-law [Gordon Shedden] had to go and ruin it for me, haha! Still, I was really pleased to line up third on the grid in such a close session.

“After taking a solid fourth place in race one, I got alongside Morgan at the beginning of race two and Dan and Gordon then left a bit of a gap approaching the hairpin, with the extra traction from the soft tyres enabling me to out-drag them both on the exit.

“Once I had established a decent margin to the guys behind, it was plain sailing, to be honest, and over the last few laps, I reined it in a bit to make sure I brought it safely home.

“It’s no secret that it’s taken me a while to get to grips with the Corolla and that’s it’s been a tough season so far.

“It was hard not being where we felt we should be and I was definitely lacking confidence at the first few events, but everybody in the team has been hugely supportive so big thanks to them all.

“I feel like I’ve really found my feet in this car and that we’ve genuinely turned a corner.

“The Corolla’s quite different to how it started the season because we needed some time to adapt it to my requirements, and I’m just so much more comfortable in it now and am really enjoying driving it.

“It’s talking my language and we’re finally in tune with each other, which is enabling me to go on the attack and I was absolutely buzzing to get my first win for Toyota Gazoo Racing UK.

“What happened at the end of race three was obviously disappointing. We were in a good points-scoring position, but unfortunately Carl’s brakes failed going into Druids, causing him to tag the rear of my car and send me into the barriers at the fastest part of the circuit.

“Still, staying positive, it’s my home track next and I’m really excited to go racing in front of a full crowd in Scotland. Hopefully we can carry this form on to Knockhill. Onwards and upwards!”