Rory Butcher delighted with first “proper” win for the new Focus

Rory Butcher said he was delighted to secure the first “proper” win for the new Motorbase Performance Ford Focus after taking top honours in the final race of the weekend at Knockhill.

The Scot went into his home meeting having taken his first victory of the year at Oulton Park, albeit only after Josh Cook was excluded from the opening race of the weekend, and keen to try and build on an encouraging start to life with the new car.

Qualifying inside the top six, Butcher raced hard to fifth in race one but then ended up down in tenth in race two having run off track at McIntyres whilst dicing for position with Jake Hill.

That however left him on the front row of the grid for race three and on both starts, he was able to jump Senna Proctor off the line – eventually going on to secure a comfortable win by more than six seconds.

“I’m delighted and that win made up for race two where I wasn’t very proud of my performance,” he said. “I had to take a different mindset into race three but the car was unbelievable after a few little tweaks from the team, and a few changes from me on the driving front. I’ve been driving round here most of my life but you never stop learning, and we finally hooked up sector three this weekend which has been my achilles heel.

“To get the first proper win in the new car at home is brilliant and the car has been quick – we just struggled a bit with the weight earlier in the day. Once the ballast came down, it really came alive and was a different car.”

Butcher did concede however that it had been “weird” taking a win on home soil without fans in attendance.

“As a driver you focus on what you are doing in the car and don’t tend to notice there are no fans, but where you miss them is the atmosphere between the session as that is where the buzz is,” he said. “Knockhill is like a little ampitheatre and the Scottish fans bring do bring extra electricity to the event, so it’s been weird being here without them this weekend.”