Rory Butcher fends off Andrew Jordan for home victory

Rory Butcher held off the determined challenge of Andrew Jordan to secure a popular home victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race of the weekend at Knockhill.

The Cobra Sport AmD driver had started the race from pole position having dominated Saturday at the wheel of his Honda Civic Type R and led the majority of the 27 lap encounter, despite being forced to battle against the loss of second gear mid-way through proceedings.

Butcher had hold his lead at the start whilst behind, Jordan managed to get the jump on Dan Cammish on the run through Duffus Dip, with title leader Colin Turkington also managing to make up a place off the line to get ahead of Senna Proctor’s Subaru.

However, there would be just a single racing lap before the safety car was deployed after Carl Boardley tipped Team HARD team-mate Michael Crees into a slide at McIntyres, with Crees then collecting the Ford Focus of Nicolas Hamilton and putting both out of the race.

The action would resume on lap nine with Butcher controlling things from the front to establish a slender lead over Jordan behind.

It appeared that the Scot was easing to his third victory of the year only for Jordan to then close in the final laps, with the Pirtek Racing-backed man seeing his chance to make a move for the lead on the exit of the hairpin when Butcher clipped the kerbs on the penultimate lap.

Getting a run across the line, Jordan nosed ahead into first but then ran wide at turn one and was forced to take the escape road on the way down Duffus Dip, with Butcher diving back down the inside going into McIntyres. Back ahead, Butcher came through the remainder of the lap unscathed to secure a popular victory with Jordan following him home in second.

That result for Jordan allowed him to close the gap to team-mate Turkington down to 25 points, with the Northern Irishman finishing just off the podium.

Running fifth in the early stages behind Cammish and Tom Chilton, Turkington was able to move up into fourth when Chilton lost time and slipped back down the order, and then set about putting Cammish – running on the slower medium tyre – under pressure for third.

Although he would have a look at the hairpin, Turkington was unable to find a way ahead as Cammish completed the podium, with Turkington having to settle for fourth.

Behind, Senna Proctor and Chris Smiley rounded out the top six after the pair got ahead of Chilton when he was forced wide at the hairpin as he tried to go around the outside of Turkington five laps from the end.

It meant Chilton was left with seventh place, with the top ten rounded out by Tom Ingram, Adam Morgan and Jake Hill.

Elsewhere, Mike Bushell’s return to action would end early after contact with Ollie Jackson on the opening lap damaged the rear suspension on his Honda Civic and forced him back into the pits to retire. There was also disappointment for Ash Sutton and Matt Neal, who clashed as McIntyres when Sutton launched a move down the inside for position, with the resultant contact putting both into retirement.

What looked like being a strong race for Tom Oliphant ended with a 15th place finish after his was forced to serve a drive through penalty, although the BMW racer was at least able to rescue two points having posted the fastest lap during his recovery through the field.

With the gap between the top two having come down by five points, and with Cammish having also taken points out of Turkington, the second race of the weekend is scheduled for 14:15 local time.