Photo: PSP Images

MG pairing delighted by early season show

Rory Butcher and Tom Boardman were both left delighted by their weekend at Brands Hatch as the AmD team enjoyed a strong start to life running the ex-works MGs.

The team went into the weekend with limited running during the winter and focused on fighting for points.

Butcher would fight back from 24th on the grid to pick up points in all three races; the highlight coming in race three when he was able to bring his car to the finish in sixth spot.

That marked his best result in the series to date, and left him ninth in the championship standings.

“I’m delighted for the whole team with the way the weekend has gone,” he said. “Considering the amount of pre-season running we have had and the fact that my deal came together quite late, it’s brilliant to come away from the weekend with three points scoring finishes and P6 in race three was a great way to end it.

“We are still learning with the car every time we go out on track and sometimes we don’t always get it right, as was the case in qualifying. But come race day, we really had the MG working well and I think we showed we have a good package in both the wet and the dry.

“This is a tough championship and to come away from round one in the position we are in is something I’m very pleased with.”

Team-mate Boardman qualified 28th on the grid for his return to the series and picked up points in race two with a storming drive through the field to fourth on slicks in race two.

Contact in race three prevented him from adding to his tally but he too was pleased with the peformance of the MG over the course of the weekend – with the team already scoring more than half of the total points secured by the MGs over the whole of 2017.

“This was always going to be a learning weekend for us and I think we have learned a massive amount and also picked up some great results to go with it,” he said. “It was my first weekend in an NGTC car so I didn’t really know what to expect and the first race was all about trying to make up places and stay out of trouble.

“We made the call on slicks in race two and it was tough in the early stages before things started to dry out and to come through and take fourth place was brilliant.

“Even though the extra weight we had to carry in race three then cost us some straight line speed, I think we could have scored some more good points if we’d not been knocked off track but I’m just pleased to come away from round one with some points on the board and something we can build on.”