Top ten finish for Butcher on Fife home soil

Starting the opening race in round 22 of the 2018 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship from 23rd on the grid, the 31-year-old took his car to 10th on the Fife track.

He then went even better, finishing ninth and seventh in the following two races, leading to a 10th place finish overall.

Speaking to the Press, he said: “For the last six or seven years I hadn’t done any racing in Scotland until last year when I made my debut in the Touring Cars at Knockhill, so it coming back again was a special weekend for me.”

Despite a lowly starting position on the grid, Butcher said he was “really pleased” with his overall performance.

“This year we’ve really struggled, mainly in dry conditions, in qualifying. We just can’t find the performance to get ourselves far up the field, so the Sundays are quite difficult,” he said.

“We have to really fight our way through to get up into the points, but in the last six rounds we’ve had top 10 finishes.

“In race three at the weekend we were battling for fourth place and I made a move on the penultimate lap which ended up costing me two or three places.

“We’re one of the smaller teams in the grid so we are the underdogs. So when you get an opportunity like that you just have to go for it.

“Losing two or three places isn’t such a big deal. I would have regretted not trying, overall it was a good weekend.”

Next for Butcher is an endurance race at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France before the penultimate round of the Touring Cars at Silverstone on September 22-23.

“I’m really enjoying it,” he said. “And I’m looking forward to Silverstone to continue the run of results.”