Bold strategy pays off for race three winner Butcher

AmD Tuning's Rory Butcher made the most of bold set up and strategy call to take his first win 'on the road' following a dramatic reverse grid British Touring Car Championship race at Snetterton.

Butcher qualified in eleventh position for the opening race but elected to keep the faster soft compound for the final race of the day, which allowed the Honda Civic Type R driver to make a sensational race winning charge from 12th on the grid.

Having spent the entirety of the race weekend on the fringes of the top-ten, Butcher admitted he came away from race two feeling 'deflated', but a fundamental change to the set up prior to the reverse grid race brought the Civic Type R alive.

"I didn’t expect to be in the position to be fighting for a podium or a win this weekend," Butcher told Crash.net. "I was hovering just outside the top-ten in practice and qualifying.

"The same happened in races one and two but our strategy worked. We decided to build throughout the day and save the soft tyre for race three. We kind of sacrificed the first two races for that last race.

"I was deflated [after race two] because I only scored eight points across the first two races. I felt as if we were losing a bit of grasp on the leaders.

"We also made a fundamental set up change to the car for race three because we didn’t feel we had the ultimate pace.

"The car came alive and I was able to take advantage."

After scything his way into contention for the race win, Butcher took full advantage of Jason Plato and Ashley Sutton's fiery battle for the lead by pulling off a daring move on the duo as they arrived three abreast heading into Brundle.

Butcher explained he initially attempted to move to the outside of Sutton's Subaru on the back straight, but later elected to move back across the circuit, where he passed Plato on the inside line of Brundle.

"As soon as I saw Plato and Ash [Sutton] ahead of me I thought ‘game on’. I just had to keep my nose clean and let them fight it out," the Honda driver continued.

"I got a better run coming onto the back straight and I went to the right. I was initially going to go the right of Ash. He closed the door so I went to the left and found a gap on the left of Plato and I just decided that I’m going to try and make it stick.

"I think I was in the safest position. It was incredible to come out of Brundle in the lead.

"I had such a good run on them, my instinct said go to the racing line. I think I’m quite lucky that Ash covered that line because it put me to the inside and then it turned out to be safest place to be."

Although Butcher was declared the winner of round 3 at Brands Hatch earlier this year following Tom Chilton’s time penalty, race three marked the first time where Butcher crossed the line first in a BTCC race.

As such, the AmD driver has moved back up to third in the drivers’ standings as the leading non-BMW runner behind Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan.

“What an amazing feeling to come from 12th and cross the line and take my first win on the road,” said Butcher.

“That first victory, as much as it says it on the timing sheets, I never quite counted that. I’ve just been looking for that first victory to take the chequered flag.”