Rory Butcher took a commanding victory in race three of the day at Knockhill, the circuit owned by his father, which he helps to run.
Starting from the front row, Butcher shot into the lead after getting a better start than pole sitter Senna Proctor in the Excelr8 Hyundai. However, a huge crash on lap two that saw a spinning Ollie Jackson t-boned by Mike Bushell brought out the red flag. Fortunately none of the drivers involved were seriously hurt and quick work by the marshals meant that there was only a short delay to proceedings.
When the race got underway for the second time it was very much an action replay of the first start, with Butcher making a much better getaway than Proctor and assuming the lead. Further behind, Tom Chilton bravely passed Jake Hill down the inside into the first corner to take fourth. He made that third before the opening lap was complete with a late lunge up the inside of Chris Smiley at the hairpin.
Tom Oliphant was also on the move dispatching Hill and Smiley within two laps of each other to sit fourth by the end of lap five.
Whilst there were some good scraps throughout the field, particularly in the middle order there weren’t many crucial overtakes and the order remained largely unchanged to the flag.
Butcher crossed the line over six seconds clear, by far the biggest winning margin of any of the touring car races today.
Proctor held on to second despite being closed down by Chilton in the latter stages of the race. Chilton claimed his first podium of the season and therefore his first for BTC Racing.
Oliphant was fourth to cap a pretty consistent weekend ahead of Hill and Dan Cammish.
Chris Smiley was seventh in the second Hyundai, with Aiden Moffat eighth after coming out on top of a frenetic battle with defending champion Colin Turkington who was forced to settle for ninth.
Tom Ingram rounded out the top ten, edging out double race winner Ash Sutton who was eleventh.
With twelve races gone, Turkington now has a ten point lead over Sutton, with Butcher a distant third despite taking his second win of the season.
The series resumes in three weeks at Thruxton in Hampshire.
