Points but promise left unfulfilled for Toyota Gazoo Racing UK at Knockhill

Toyota Gazoo Racing UK were left frustrated after only having a solitary points finish to show for all their promise in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill last weekend (14-15 August).

The Cheshire-based squad, partnered with Motul UK and Witham Motorsport for the 2021 season, made the trip north of the Scottish border to the 1.2-mile Fife circuit buoyed by recent results, including a first victory of the campaign at Oulton Park last time out.

Rory Butcher overcame electrical issues in practice to post competitive times, and his eighth-placed starting spot for the opening race was set with a time just one tenth of a second shy of the front row.

After a battling drive to ninth in the opener, the 34-year-old’s triple header on home turf took a turn for the worse in race two, contact with fellow Scot Aiden Moffat at Duffus Dip leaving the #6 Toyota Corolla in the barriers.

With it all to do from the back, Butcher made fine progress to score a top 20 finish on the softer Goodyear tyres but was ultimately too far back to make a realistic move into the points-paying positions.

Team-mate Sam Smelt continued his own respective push towards the front, clocking a 17th-placed finish in the first contest before an off-track moment to avoid a slow-starting rival in the second put him on a collision course with the trackside advertising.

After pitting to remove the banner, he re-joined the fray and took the chequered flag in P24, a result he would replicate in the final contest later that afternoon.

The UK’s premier tin-top series returns to action at the high-speed Thruxton circuit in Hampshire on 28-29 August.

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

“We left Knockhill with very mixed emotions – satisfaction that we had once again made considerable progress over the course of the weekend and showed the pace of the Toyota Corolla, but by the same token a lot of frustration that, for a variety of reasons, we had been unable to convert that into results.

“Rory was on really feisty form in races one and two, fully exploiting his track knowledge and experience to produce some brilliant overtaking manoeuvres that brought the capacity crowd to its feet. It’s notoriously difficult to make a break at Knockhill because for every move you successfully pull off, a failed attempt can send you right back to square one, but he was going in the right direction and we looked to be in the box seat for a solid race three grid slot until the accident with Aiden [Moffat].

“It was just one of those things that can happen when you’re racing at such close quarters around a tight-and-twisty circuit, and it robbed us of the opportunity to potentially challenge for a win at the end of the day, which Rory’s speed in race three proved he was very capable of achieving. I must pay tribute to the entire Speedworks crew for a stellar repair job – for that same car that had been buried in the barriers to return to the track and set fastest lap only a couple of hours later is glowing testament to each and every one of them.

“Sam also had a far better weekend than the results sheets suggest, and like Rory, he was gaining momentum and ground when misfortune struck. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when he came upon Smiley’s car, but he should draw a great deal of encouragement from the speed he displayed throughout the weekend, which confirmed the step forward that he took at Oulton and which I have no doubt he will translate into solid points-scoring finishes sooner rather than later.”

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

“Sometimes the dice just don’t roll your way, and Knockhill was unquestionably a missed opportunity for us, which was a real shame as the potential was clear to see.

“We began the weekend with a similar set-up to the one that had served us so well at Oulton Park, but it just didn’t transfer and we had to do quite a lot of work to get the Corolla into the right window. We then had the electrical gremlins in FP1 – which have actually been haunting us all year and have caused the team no end of headaches – but we believe we managed to find the root of the problem between the two practice sessions, so hopefully we can now put that behind us for good and focus 100 per cent on performance.

“Qualifying was one of those sessions where you kept thinking back afterwards, ‘what could I have done better?’ It all came down to the smallest of margins, and even just something like a mis-shift was enough to drop you down the order. I didn’t quite get the most out of the car, because there was definitely a top four slot in it, and that gave us more work to do on Sunday.

“It isn’t easy to overtake at Knockhill – you’ve either got to try to force the driver ahead into a mistake or be very aggressive and really commit to the pass – and it felt like we were constantly in a see-saw battle that we couldn’t drag ourselves out of. We were finally starting to move forward in race two, and then obviously it all went horribly wrong…

“That was super unfortunate, and if it hadn’t happened, we might very well have started the last race from the front row of the grid, from where I would definitely have fancied my chances of extending my winning run at Knockhill. As it was, race three was really scrappy back in the pack, but at least we got to show what the Corolla is capable of with the fastest lap – and on the medium tyres, too. The car felt very different by the end of the weekend to how it had done at the start, so that’s certainly a positive to take away.”

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

“I was pretty happy with the pace we showed in practice, and I was confident there was a good chunk of time still to find in qualifying, but it just turned into a bit of a messy session, annoyingly. On both occasions that we went out on a new tyre run, the red flags emerged, which ruined those sets of tyres and we never managed to get a good lap in after that. That was obviously frustrating, but there wasn’t a lot we could do about it – it was simply bad luck, and we focussed on moving forward on race day.

“We had decent speed on Sunday on both tyre compounds, and we made good progress in the first race – it was frenetic, like it always is at Knockhill, but that was probably one of my best drives so far and I really enjoyed it.

“I was targeting more of the same in race two and made a good start, but then that all came to nought when I had to take to the grass to avoid Smiley. There was nothing else I could have done – I saw his car as I came over the brow of the hill, and with somebody else on my left, I had no choice but to dart to the right and of course, that’s exactly where the advertising board was!

“I tried to shake it off but with the engine temperature going through the roof, I had to pit for it to be removed and when you drop to the tail of the field somewhere like Knockhill, where the margins are so fine, it’s extremely difficult to recover. That was a real shame, because my goal for that race had been to climb well into the points and with the pace we had, I really think we could have done.

“Overall, though, there were still a lot of positives to take away from Knockhill. We proved that the speed we showed at Oulton hadn’t been a flash in the pan, and hopefully we can now carry that on throughout the second half of the season.”

Witham Motorsport proud to support and work with a number of race drivers, teams and garages. To read more about who uses Motul oils and to shop the full range, please click here.