A bumper crowd of more than 15,000 is expected at Knockhill this weekend to see the annual pilgrimage of the British Touring Car Championship and its supporting races to Scotland. And most eyes will be on two Fifers, Gordon ‘Flash’ Shedden and Rory Butcher.
Shedden, the 31-year-old from Dalgety Bay, has slipped to fourth in the championship after a best finish of fifth in the last round at Silverstone, 33 points behind the Chevrolet of leader Jason Plato.
He is though only 19 points behind the Ford of second-placed Tom Onslow-Cole and 10 behind his own Team Honda team-mate, Matt Neal, in third.
“Yeh, Silverstone wasn’t our best outing of the year, but that track was always going to be tough for us,” Shedden, who has won three times this year, including at Snetterton last month, admitted today. “There’s no doubt the Honda will be far better suited to the tight, twisty demands of Knockhill.”
As business development manager at the track, and occasional race instructor, Shedden certainly knows his way round the 1.3-mile circuit, something he proved last year when he put the Seat on the front row of the grid in his first outing.
Shedden though is keen to get something of a monkey off his back; he hasn’t won at Knockhill since 2007.
“Three years is far too long,” he continued, “but while it would be terrific to win this weekend in front all all the home support — and my family and friends — I really have to think of the championship. The main target has to be to close the gap on the guys in front of me.”
Meanwhile, two years after he dazzled the opposition when he scored two fifth places on his debut in the Porsche Carrera Cup, Butcher will again take on the big guns at his home circuit.
The 23-year-old son of Knockhill owner Derek, Rory shone in Formula Ford before graduating this year to the British GT Championship in a KTM where he helped his ABG Motorsport team to victory at Silverstone, partnered by Ben Harvey.
Now though the youngster, who only narrowly missed out on being awarded a scholarship into this year’s Carrera Cup, will drive one of the Celtic Racing Porsches run by Aberdonian Tommy Dreelan.
“It’s great to get this opportunity,” Butcher admitted after his first run in the car. “It probably took me about 10 laps or so to get back into the way of driving the Porsche, but it came to me pretty quickly and the times started coming down consistently.
“It’s the perfect opportunity to put myself in the shop window in front of the big teams for next year, so I’ll be making sure I do a good job.”
JM