The best weekend in Rory Butcher's BTCC career so far continues as the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK star claimed his second successive victory at Silverstone.
This was a lights-to-flag performance from the Scotsman as he first held off the Hyundai of Tom Ingram before withstanding an exciting last lap attack from BTC Racing's Josh Cook, although the latter was disqualified for a technical infringement after his car failed a post-race ride height check.
The Honda Civic Type R of Cook was bottled up behind Ingram for much of the contest, but when he finally made a move stick in the latter stages he was free to hunt down Butcher's Toyota.
Ingram and Cook went side-by-side on a number of occasions in an eventful and respectful scrap, but arguably the most exciting moment was still to come as the lead battle built to a climax on the final tour.
With Cook finally free of Ingram's #80 machine he immediately hauled himself towards the ballast-laden Corolla of Butcher, making a late late lunge for victory at Brooklands.
A collective gasp from the Silverstone grandstands could be heard all around the famous former airfield, as Cook ran wide with Butcher holding on to triumph.
As mentioned, there was yet more disappointment for Cook after he was disqualified, which handed Ingram second, ahead of Team BMW's Colin Turkington, who had seen off the attentions from Laser Tools Racing duo Ash Sutton and Aiden Moffat.
Daniel Rowbottom (Halfords Racing with Cataclean), Chris Smiley (Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com) and Stephen Jelley (Team BMW) were sixth, seventh and eighth respectively.
Jake Hill performed outstandingly to score a top ten finish in the MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square Ford Focus, as he surged from 21st on the grid to take ninth. Jason Plato was tenth in the Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing Ford Focus.
There were two safety car periods in the contest, firstly following an incident where Nic Hamilton was tipped off by a rival and then contact between Gordon Shedden and Jade Edwards' Hondas forced the latter into retirement.
Race 3 will take place at 1705 and will be screened live on ITV4.
Rory Butcher said: "We’ve just had a clean sweep so far this weekend! That was a lot harder with the 75kg of success ballast on board, but I’m amazed with how the car’s handled it, because you never know! We’ve got the car in such a good window. I could feel it, but it didn’t hurt too much.
"I kind of had [Josh] in the mirrors for the last five or six laps, and he was just getting a tenth off with every lap. I got to that final lap and that focus I had went to tunnel vision and I just thought I needed to make it to the line now. I felt like, at Brooklands, he sort of made a move to the inside and I thought ‘there’s no way he’s going to do that’ but I just saw his car in the mirror. You know what, I probably would’ve done the same thing, but luckily it didn’t pay off and I held on for the win.
"We’re going to be in the pack now and it’s going to be even harder. The difficulty level is going up! But we’ll have a look at where we are and if we can make any changes to try and make the car even quicker, but I think we’ll just try and stay out of trouble and bring some points home."
2021 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – Race 2 – Silverstone
1 Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Toyota Gazoo Racing UK 25 laps
2 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +3.021s
3 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +3.162s
4 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +3.456s
5 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +3.492s
6 Daniel ROWBOTTOM (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +4.182s
7 Chris SMILEY (GBR) Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +4.494s
8 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team BMW +5.550s
9 Jake HILL (GBR) MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square +6.706s
10 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing +7.031s
11 Daniel LLOYD (GBR) Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing +7.036s
12 Árón TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions +7.796s
13 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +8.348s
14 Sam OSBORNE (GBR) Racing with Wera & Photon Group +9.570s
15 Jack GOFF (GBR) Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct +9.728s
16 Jack BUTEL (GBR) EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +10.036s
17 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +10.166s
18 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square +10.773s
19 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +11.066s
20 Tom OLIPHANT (GBR) Team BMW +13.752s
21 Jack MITCHELL (GBR) Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct +14.902s
22 Andy NEATE (GBR) Racing with Wera & Photon Group +15.589s
23 Rick PARFITT (GBR) EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +15.754s
24 Nicolas HAMILTON (GBR) ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading +24.217s
25 Carl BOARDLEY (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +6 laps
26 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) BTC Racing +7 laps
27 Sam SMELT (GBR) Toyota Gazoo Racing UK +15 laps
28 Jade EDWARDS (GBR) PHSC with BTC Racing +18 laps
DSQ Josh COOK (GBR) BTC Racing
