Rory Butcher gains ground with triple top six

Rory Butcher insisted he was pleased to gain ground in the BTCC title race after three top six finishes saw the Speedworks man move up into the top ten in standings.

The Scot went into the sixth meeting of the campaign sitting eleventh in the championship and was keen to avoid a repeat of the opening weekend, when he failed to finish two of the three races.

Fourth on the grid put Butcher in a strong position for race day and he fought back from losing places at the start to take the same result in the first race having held off the challenge of Ash Sutton’s Infiniti.

Despite the additional ballast on his car, Butcher finished fifth in race two before taking sixth in race three to ensure he ended the weekend having moved up to seventh in the championship going to Croft later this month for round seven.

“I was happy to hold onto fourth place in race one; it was hard work, but a lot of fun,” he said. “It was tough to keep the rear wheel-drive boys behind on the run to the first corner – they’re just superior off the start-line – but straightaway, I could feel that the car was quick.
 
“Race two was similarly action-packed, although having got myself up to third on the first lap, I then let go of it at the next corner so I gave myself a good talking-to about that as we had the pace for the podium. It was disappointing not to be able to hang onto another top five finish in race three, but otherwise, we were quite close to the Corolla’s sweet spot by then.
 
“Overall, we came away from Thruxton with a great points haul and a lot learned. Huge thanks to the team for everybody’s hard work, which really paid off. Some weekends you’ll get a win and a pole position, some others it’s a crash and a DNF. In-between weekends like this are the ones you might not remember, but they can turn out to be every bit as important in the long run…”