Rory Butcher fights back to race one win at Silverstone

Toyota’s Rory Butcher fought back from losing the lead at the start of the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Silverstone to claim victory ahead of Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram.

With Butcher starting the race a row back due to fluid dropped on the grid from an earlier support race, it was Ingram who claimed the lead going into the first corner on the opening lap, with Butcher slotting in to second.

However, on lap four Butcher, having closely followed Ingram, made a late dive up the inside at Brooklands, with Ingram leaving the door open for the Scot to make the pass.

However, after the race Ingram revealed that he hadn’t defended the position due to a yellow flag at the corner for an incident between Gordon Shedden and Sam Smelt on the opening lap which had left Shedden’s car on the side-lines at Luffield.

No action was taken during the race, and Butcher went on to cross the finish line a comfortable 3.262 seconds ahead of Ingram.

Hyundai driver Ingram came under late-race pressure from Power Maxed Racing’s Daniel Lloyd for second, although the Vauxhall driver never mounted a serious attempt to pass.

Lloyd completed the podium, claiming his first BTCC podium since June 2018, having gained two places at the very start of the race, with Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat a close fourth.

BTC Racing’s Josh Cook was fifth as the leading Honda driver, ahead of the best BMW of Colin Turkington in sixth.

Championship leader Ash Sutton muscled past Team Dynamics’ Daniel Rowbottom for seventh on the eighth lap and remained there for the rest of the race, although he maintained the same 29 point series lead after his erstwhile closest rival, Jake Hill, finished outside of the points.

BMW’s Stephen Jelley and Power Maxed Racing’s Jason Plato completed the top ten, the latter having held off strong pressure from Tom Oliphant for the closing stages of the race, the BMW driver finishing in 11^th.

MB Motorsport’s Ollie Jackson was the leading Ford driver in 12^th, whilst his team-mate Hill battled hard with Excelr8’s Jack Butel and Ciceley Motorsport’s Tom Chilton in the race, but ultimately lost out to both after some panel rubbing and crossed the finish line in 21^st after only gaining one place in the race.

Along with Shedden and Smelt, first lap casualties also included Motorbase’s Andy Neate and Ciceley’s Adam Morgan, who made contact at Turn 1 and spun the former around after his left-rear tyre came off the rim, and Team HARD’s Jack Mitchell.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:20 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	6	M		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	22	21:21.142	57.713	1
2	80	I		Tom INGRAM	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	22	3.262	57.896	2
3	123	I		Daniel LLOYD	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	22	3.666	57.959	5
4	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	22	4.263	57.944	3
5	66	I		Josh COOK	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	22	6.674	57.942	4
6	2	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	22	6.929	57.964	6
7	1	I		Ashley SUTTON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	22	7.379	57.613	8
8	32	I		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	22	8.113	57.948	7
9	12	M		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	22	10.154	58.171	9
10	11	I		Jason PLATO	Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	22	10.564	58.187	10
11	15	M		Tom OLIPHANT	Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	22	10.757	58.146	12
12	48	M		Ollie JACKSON	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	22	16.981	58.277	17
13	22	I		Chris SMILEY	Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	22	17.27	58.247	15
14	18	I		Senna PROCTOR	BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	22	17.621	58.321	13
15	41	I		Carl BOARDLEY	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	22	18.009	58.335	16
16	4	M		Sam OSBORNE	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	22	18.763	58.321	20
17	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions	CUPRA Leon	22	19.410	58.347	23
18	96	I		Jack BUTEL	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	22	19.886	58.245	19
19	31	I		Jack GOFF	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	22	23.460	58.296	28
20	3	I		Tom CHILTON	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	22	23.822	58.392	11
21	24	M		Jake HILL	MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square	Ford Focus ST	22	24.904	58.405	22
22	99	I		Jade EDWARDS	PHSC with BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type-R	22	25.239	58.475	27
23	62	I		Rick PARFITT Jr	EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	22	26.015	58.467	26
24	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading	CUPRA Leon	22	28.099	58.680	29
25	2022	–		Andrew JORDAN	–	Toyota Corolla BTCC Hybrid	22	30.593	57.862	30
R	44	M		Andy NEATE	Racing with Wera & Photon Group	Ford Focus ST	2	DNF	N/A	24
R	33	I		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	1	DNF	N/A	21
R	52	I		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type-R	0	DNF	N/A	14
R	23	M		Sam SMELT	Toyota Gazoo Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	0	DNF	N/A	18
R	19	I		Jack MITCHELL	Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct	CUPRA Leon	0	DNF	N/A	25