Can the BTCC's underrated Toyota ace stake his claim to a title?

By:

Marcus Simmons

Apr 20, 2023, 9:31 AM

There’s new investment at Speedworks Motorsport, and its Toyotas have brand spanking new engines. Can the team put Rory Butcher into frame for a first British Touring Car Championship title?

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“Don’t make it sound like I’m bigging myself up,” pleads Rory Butcher at the end of a cosy chat with Autosport on the eve of the 2023 British Touring Car Championship kicking off this weekend at Donington Park.

He’s probably going to hate that we’ve quoted his throwaway line, but the point is that, if there was a BTCC points table for drivers bigging themselves up, then Butcher would comfortably occupy 27th place out of 27. The Scot is a chap who’s as modest as they (usually don’t) come, but just happens to love driving racing cars – and he’s very, very good at it.

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Marcus Simmons

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Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.

Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.