Thruxton Take Two: Trophies the target for Toyota duo in Hampshire

Rory Butcher and Ricky Collard are heading back to the fastest circuit in the country this weekend (27/28 August) with silverware in their sights, as Toyota Gazoo Racing UK prepares to tackle Thruxton’s high-speed challenge for the second time this year in the British Touring Car Championship.

With its flat-out sweeping curves – where top speeds tickle an eye-watering 160mph – and unforgiving, old-school nature, Thruxton is a unique proposition on the BTCC calendar, putting drivers and cars alike to the ultimate test.

Both Butcher and Collard have reached the rostrum at the track in the past – the Scot in the UK’s premier motor racing series, and the Surrey-born star pipping current McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris to the runner-up spoils in MSA Formula – while the Toyota Corolla GR Sport sped to an impressive double victory there in 2020. Not only that, but the British-built hatch still holds the race lap record at Thruxton from the same season.

The Speedworks Motorsport-run outfit endured a troubled weekend at the circuit back in May, but progress made since then sees Butcher and Collard return in confident mood. The 35-year-old Kirkcaldy native – a former BTCC Independents’ Champion and Jack Sears Trophy winner – has ascended the podium in three of the latest four outings, with his 26-year-old team-mate unlucky to be denied a top three finish himself just over a week ago at Snetterton.

Following Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session at 15:25 – broadcast on itv.com/btcc – every moment of Sunday’s doorhandle-to-doorhandle action will be televised live and in high-definition on ITV4, beginning at 11:15am.

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

“You always tend to approach Thruxton with a mixture of excitement and apprehension. There’s no other circuit quite like it – it poses a unique challenge from an engineering perspective, while as a driver, it’s tremendously rewarding when you get it right but there’s a very fine line between pushing to the limit and overstepping it.

“We’ve enjoyed success there in the past with the Corolla, and although we didn’t come away with the results we were aiming for earlier this season, that was predominantly due to starting out-of-position – Rory’s pace on race day in particular was much more representative of the car’s true potential.

“For Ricky, Thruxton is obviously home turf and he should take a lot of confidence from his recent performances – he’s unquestionably turned a corner since Oulton Park, and is now capable of fighting at the front every weekend. To be holding his own against the likes of Ash Sutton and Tom Ingram is testament to how much he has matured as a touring car driver this year.

“We’ve found a base set-up for the car that seems to suit him just as much as Rory and they’re working together extremely well, which is helping to drive the whole team forward. There’s a very positive vibe inside the camp right now and it really feels like the best is yet to come this season – hopefully starting this weekend…”

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

“Thruxton is such a unique track – one that I think pretty much every driver loves going to. It’s real seat-of-the-pants stuff, right on the ragged edge and somewhere that calls for maximum commitment – the kind of place where if you put even so much as a wheel out of line, it will bite.

“It’s definitely a confidence circuit, and I’m feeling confident ahead of the weekend. I think we’ll be stronger than we were in May, when we had reasonable pace on race day but not a lot of luck, and we’re going back in a positive frame of mind.

“To have finished on the podium at three very different tracks recently shows that we have got the Corolla into a really good place now, and there’s no reason why that shouldn’t translate to Thruxton as well. It was a shame not to be able to keep our run going at Snetterton due to starting so far down the field, because we certainly had the speed in the races – so if we can qualify up at the sharp end this weekend, I’m very optimistic of adding to our silverware collection on Sunday.”

Ricky Collard, Driver, Toyota Gazoo Racing UK, said:

“I always look forward to going to my home circuit. It’s somewhere I’ve been familiar with since first watching my dad race when I was a little kid, and I’ve got some pretty happy memories of competing there myself after beating Lando to second place in MSA Formula a few years ago.

“I’m really enjoying driving the Corolla at the moment, and it’ll be a lot of fun to properly push it to its limits at Thruxton – it’s exactly the kind of place that should showcase the Toyota’s strengths. I feel like I’ve taken a genuine step forward lately, and to be heading into the weekend off the back of six straight points finishes and my best result of the season last time out gives me a lot of confidence.

“Snetterton was obviously tinged with disappointment at the end when third place was taken away from me for what I believed was a hard but fair touring car move, but that’s already in the past and it will only make me even more determined to reach the podium again in front of my family and friends at Thruxton. Let’s have it!”

Images: Jakob Ebrey Photography