Motorsport: Kirkcaldy's Rory Butcher fails to register top 10 finish in three KwikFit British Touring Car Championship races after qualifying sixth fastest at Knockhill

Toyota Gazoo Racing UK driver Butcher, 36, did not finish race one as he retired on lap 17, before he achieved respective placings of 15th and 12th in races two and three during meeting seven of the 10-meeting championship series.

Although a disappointing event for Butcher, the overall weekend was the most enthralling of the season so far, with the country’s best tin-top drivers producing an unforgettable trio of races amidst wet and wild conditions in Fife.

Ash Sutton displayed his range of skills throughout, which he rounded off with victory in the finale, but that was after Jake Hill had produced his own dynamic double to reignite his championship challenge.Sutton extended his advantage in the drivers’ championship standings to 37 points from Tom Ingram, with the latter recovering well from race one disappointment to score a podium in the reversed-grid encounter.

Sutton said: “I’m ecstatic I won’t lie. After race one I thought we were going to have a tough task on our hands in terms of the Championship, but with the disqualification of Tom (Ingram) and the performance in race two. Then to finish it off with a win, I couldn’t ask for much more than that.

“This is the biggest gap I have ever experienced in British Touring Cars so I’m not going to complain about it at all, but we have seen even this weekend how quick things can change. I’m not going to get too excited just yet. We are closer than we have ever been before, but we still need to be clever.”Hill’s two wins helped him to climb to third overall, ahead of WSR BMW stablemate Colin Turkington, while BMW hung on to the lead in the manufacturers’/constructors’ order.

Rounds 22, 23 and 24 of the 2023 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship will take place at Donington Park on August 26 and 27, as the series’ eighth instalment of 2023 makes its long awaited return to the Grand Prix circuit for the first time since 2002.