Toyota Gazoo Racing UK claim victory on home soil at Oulton Park

Motul-backed Toyota Gazoo Racing UK charged to victory at their ‘home’ round of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park, Cheshire last weekend (31 Jul – 01 Aug).

After a character-building weekend at Brands Hatch last month, the Speedworks Motorsport team returned from the BTCC’s unofficial five-week ‘summer shutdown’ keen for a return to form at their local circuit, with the team based in nearby Sandbach.

Rory Butcher led the line for the team’s pair of Toyota Corolla challengers in qualifying, the 34-year-old Scot putting the #6 machine third on the grid, less than a tenth off pole position, whilst a season-best showing from Sam Smelt put him in P15.

Although Butcher lost out in the opening race to a charging Adam Morgan and took the chequered flag fourth, he would not be denied in race two, on a circuit which holds fond memories for the Kirkaldy racer.

A bold move to the inside of both Team Dynamics Hondas at the Island Hairpin allowed Butcher to get the job done, and once released he pulled clear to register a first victory of the campaign for team and driver by 1.6 seconds.

The weekend ended on a low note, however, with a failure for another car causing it to spin and collect Butcher at Druids, leaving him on the sidelines as the race was red flagged.

There was more good news on the other side of the garage, as Smelt enjoyed his most competitive outing in the UK’s premier tin-top series of the season to-date.

From a P23 finish in the opener, he duly chipped away at moving up the order in each of the subsequent races, first taking P19 in race two, then gaining a further spot to end the day in P18, and just outside the points-paying positions.

A clear sign of progress, Smelt’s focus will now shift to continuing his rise through the ranks as he continues to re-acclimatise to touring car racing, with the next stop on the calendar being Knockhill, Fife on 14-15 August.

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

That was an excellent weekend. It might be our local track, but Oulton Park has never tended to be particularly kind to us and this wasn’t just our first win but indeed our first podium on ‘home soil’, which was an emotional moment for the entire team.

It was Rory’s best performance yet for Toyota Gazoo Racing UK and a real breakthrough for him; he has now proved that he can qualify up at the front and win in the Corolla, which we have known he is capable of all along, and he did it in some style – he really had to fight for it and produced an incredible opening lap to take the lead. We’ve got the car much more to his liking and he really exploited that to score a brilliant victory with quite a lot of ballast on-board.

Most importantly, Rory has shaken off the pressure and got the monkey off his back. He’s also now within striking distance of the top of the championship points-wise but down in eighth in the standings, which is the perfect scenario as it means he will still be light going into qualifying next time out. We are clearly heading in the right direction, and there’s plenty more detail to fine-tune – by no means have we reached our maximum potential yet.

On the other side of the garage, Sam produced his best qualifying effort so far, and that was without even stringing the full lap together, which he was kicking himself about. He could very conceivably have lined up inside the top ten, but 15^th nevertheless represented comfortably his highest starting spot to-date and continued his positive momentum from the tyre test at Oulton last month, which marked a big step forward.

“Unfortunately, he then made a mistake on the first lap of race one, which he held his hands up to, and that left him fighting further down the order than he should have been but his pace throughout the day was really promising. If he can maintain this progress in qualifying and eradicate the errors, he will be in a very strong position. For all of us, I think it’s fair to say, Knockhill really can’t come soon enough!

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

This has been a long time coming! I had a little spring in my step arriving at Oulton after taking such a big leap forward at Brands Hatch and the tyre test, and we really hit the ground running in free practice. I went into qualifying in optimistic mood, and managed to piece together a very good lap on my second run. For a moment, I thought we were on for pole, but my brother-in-law (Gordon Shedden) had to go and ruin it for me, haha! Still, I was really pleased to line up third on the grid in such a close session.

After taking a solid fourth place in race one, I got alongside [Adam] Morgan at the beginning of race two and Dan [Rowbottom] and Gordon [Shedden] then left a bit of a gap approaching the hairpin, with the extra traction from the soft tyres enabling me to out-drag them both on the exit. Once I had established a decent margin to the guys behind, it was plain sailing, to be honest, and over the last few laps, I reined it in a bit to make sure I brought it safely home.

It’s no secret that it’s taken me a while to get to grips with the Corolla and that’s it’s been a tough season so far. It was hard not being where we felt we should be and I was definitely lacking confidence at the first few events, but everybody in the team has been hugely supportive so big thanks to them all. I feel like I’ve really found my feet in this car and that we’ve genuinely turned a corner.

The Corolla’s quite different to how it started the season because we needed some time to adapt it to my requirements, and I’m just so much more comfortable in it now and am really enjoying driving it. It’s talking my language and we’re finally in tune with each other, which is enabling me to go on the attack and I was absolutely buzzing to get my first win for Toyota Gazoo Racing UK.

What happened at the end of race three was obviously disappointing. We were in a good points-scoring position, but unfortunately Carl’s brakes failed going into Druids, causing him to tag the rear of my car and send me into the barriers at the fastest part of the circuit. Still, staying positive, it’s my home track next and I’m really excited to go racing in front of a full crowd in Scotland. Hopefully we can carry this form on to Knockhill. Onwards and upwards!

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

After lapping quickly in all conditions in practice, I was really angry with myself at the end of qualifying, even though it was my best starting spot of the season so far. The top ten was definitely achievable, but I didn’t manage to hook a complete lap together, which cost me.

Still, a couple of months ago, if you’d told me I would qualify 15^th, I would have snapped your hand off whereas I was disappointed with it at Oulton, so I guess that shows the progress we are making and I was optimistic we would have strong race pace and would be able to move forward on Sunday.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a bit of a nightmare on the results front. We were fast in races one and three, but my mistake on the first lap of race one put us on the back foot for the rest of the day. I tried to hold on around the outside of Cascades but because it had been raining and the track was a bit green, I couldn’t make it stick and ran out of road. That undid all the good work from qualifying and with it being so difficult to overtake at Oulton, it was hard to fight back.

The tyres went off quickly in race two which left me hanging on a bit, but on the softs in race three, the Corolla felt really strong. I can’t quite believe the mechanics managed to get me back out again for the re-start after picking up damage in the first lap collision; everybody pitched in and I owe a big ‘thank you’ to them all – for the car to still feel so good afterwards was testament to their skill.

It was a great weekend for the team overall, and the aim now is to keep this positive momentum going and really build upon it. Despite not coming away with the results to show for it, my performance gave me a good confidence boost and next time, hopefully, we can qualify up the order again and really capitalise on that.

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