Toyota Gazoo Racing UK take another step forward at Brands Hatch

Motul partners Toyota Gazoo Racing UK showed their resilience on a character-building weekend (26-27 June) in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch, Kent.

Buoyed by a first podium finish of the season for Rory Butcher at Snetterton last time out, Cheshire-based Speedworks Motorsport made the trip to the 1.2-mile Indy circuit looking to build on recent progress for the Toyota Corolla GR Sport.

Mechanical issues in qualifying hampered both Butcher and Sam Smelt’s progress in a hotly contested field, leaving the pair in the thick of the action for Sunday’s triple-header, live on ITV3.

In damp conditions, Butcher was able to haul himself up into the final points-paying position and the 34-year-old might have put the #6 into contention for the reverse-grid draw, but for late contact that dropped him back to P14 at the chequered flag in Race 2.

The Scot went on a charge in the finale, however, making up seven positions and claiming the fastest lap en route to seventh to end the weekend on a high note, the result also securing a Manufacturers Trophy for Toyota.

Team-mate Smelt made forward progress in the opening two races as the 24-year-old continues his re-adjustment to tin-top racing. After a high of P18 in the second race, a brake problem in the finale forced Smelt to back off, losing him ground.

Regardless, his progress – plus Butcher’s points haul – gives the team every reason to be optimistic when the series reconvenes at Oulton Park, Cheshire, over the weekend of 31 July – 01 August.

Christian Dick, Team Principal, Toyota Gazoo Racing UK, said:

“First and foremost, I must pay tribute to the entire Speedworks crew for working their socks off throughout what was at times a very tough weekend; by digging deep, we managed to turn things around and left Brands Hatch in a far more optimistic frame of mind. To come away with our first Manufacturers’ Trophy in race three was great reward for each and every member of the team.

“Encountering problems with both cars in qualifying was really unfortunate, and that not only left us down the grid but more significantly cost us quite a lot of track time, which made it difficult to dial the set-up in and adjust the balance to Rory and Sam’s liking. That gave us far more work to do on race day than we had been anticipating, but everybody stepped up to the task magnificently, which allowed the boys to push on and try to regain some ground.”

Rory Butcher, Driver, Toyota Gazoo Racing UK, said:

“It’s fair to say it was a challenging weekend, but one that ended on a really promising note. I wasn’t 100 per cent comfortable in practice, and due to the power steering problem, I only got one proper run in during qualifying – for the rest of the session, I was struggling to get the car to even turn into the corners. I managed to post a reasonable lap time to put us in the midfield, but we knew we were in for a long race day from there.

“I have to give credit to the team, because everybody stayed back super late on Saturday night to delve into the data and on-board footage in an effort to figure out what we needed to do, and our focus for Sunday was firmly on moving forward, staying out of trouble and keeping ourselves in the game.

“We improved the car in every race, and the last one was the best I’ve ever felt in the Corolla – to pass some of the top guys in the championship and achieve my first fastest lap with the Toyota felt like a real turning-point for me, and the whole crew did a fantastic job to give me a car that allowed me to push and fight right to the very end.

“We have potentially found something in the car now that will allow me to really get the most out of it from here on in, and in that respect, the result felt almost like a win. It was great to finish the weekend with such a positive performance, and that sets us up nicely going off into the summer break.”

Sam Smelt, Driver, Toyota Gazoo Racing UK, said:

“The results didn’t show it, but I feel like we took a genuine step forward at Brands Hatch, not only from a performance perspective but also in terms of really understanding what I want and need from the car. We had decent pace in practice, but qualifying put us on the back foot again. On the first run, I got a solid banker in, but then on the ‘out’ lap for my second run, the driveshaft broke. That was obviously frustrating because we only needed a few tenths to move quite a few places up the grid and I was confident of finding a fair chunk of time, but it was taken out of our hands.

“We made several changes throughout race day that definitely helped, and in race two in particular, we had some really good speed – I was able to keep up with Rory and was only a few tenths away from the quickest drivers outright. That was the first time this season that I felt like I could really race people, which was encouraging and gives us something to build upon.

“We had a slight braking issue towards the end of race three which dropped us back, but before that, we were in the mix again so there were a lot of positives to take away from the weekend overall. I’m now really looking forward to next month’s tyre test, which will give me plenty of seat time in the car and hopefully allow us to confirm the progress we’ve made.”

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