Motorbase working round the clock ahead of Croft

Motorbase team manager Oly Collins says that the Ford squad is now working round the clock to repair Rory Butcher’s Ford Focus in time for this weekend’s BTCC meeting at Croft.

The car sustained heavy damage in a high-speed roll during the final race of the weekend at Silverstone, leaving the team with a huge battle to turn the #6 Focus around for the seventh round of the year.

With the car taken back to Motorbase’s base near Brands Hatch immediately after the conclusion of racing at Silverstone, work began on stripping the car before it was taken to Custom Cages in Daventry for repairs on the shell to be carried out.

That shell was then collected by team boss David Bartrum on Monday evening (5 October) and returned to HQ, where the car will now undergo a full respray before being rebuilt from the ground up.

Plans are in place for the other two cars to head to the usual pre-event shakedown, with Butcher’s car then following direct to Croft ready to hit the track in free practice on Saturday morning.

“The work that the guys in the team and at Custom Cages do was put to the test,” Collins revealed in a video from the team. “The car came back on the Sunday evening after the incident and was stripped down ready to go back to Custom Cages to see what could be salvaged and to get the rebuild started.

“It’s been an intense week for them and the car was picked up by David on Monday evening and then the guys have been able to get down to work. There is a small amount of fabrication work to be done and then the car needs a full respray.

“Once it comes back from paint, the parts are prepped and should be ready to bolt on so hopefully there will be nothing to bite us on the backside, but it’s a big task for the guys to build up what is literally a bare shell.

“That is something that would usually take a week – but we don’t have a week. There a lot of hours needed and there will be some bleary eyes when we get to Croft, but these guys are the best in the business and I expect us to be out as planned for FP1 on Saturday morning.”

With no time available for Butcher’s car to take part in a pre-event shakedown, the Scot will be given the chance to get behind the wheel of Andy Neate’s car for some seat time – with the #44 car having also been repaired after a heavy hit with the wall at Luffield.