KNOCKHILL racing duo Gordon Shedden and Rory Butcher were both in the points as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship continued last Sunday.

The duo, brothers-in-law and synonymous with Scotland's national motorsport centre, were in action during rounds seven, eight and nine of the series at Brands Hatch Indy, with Shedden bagging a podium during an entertaining weekend.

Three-time champion Shedden, behind the wheel of the Team Dynamics, Halfords Racing with Cataclean Honda Civic, claimed a fine second place in race one, from which he started on the grid, which followed on from a third place in the final race last time out at Snetterton.

Despite coming into contact with Aiden Moffat on lap five, and going on to produce the fastest lap of the race, 'Flash' wasn't quite able to reel in the BMW 3 Series of Tom Oliphant, who held on for victory by 0.188 seconds.

Butcher, who finished 16th in qualifying having been plagued by a persistent power-steering issue, snuck into the points in 15th and, in race two, had hauled himself into contention for a top-10 finish but had to settle for 14th place.

Race two saw Shedden further back, in 21st, and he would finish race three in 16th, where Butcher rounded off his weekend in positive fashion.

The 34-year-old made a bright start, battling into the top 10 by lap four, before despatching defending champion Ash Sutton for ninth.

Posting the fastest lap along the way – as the only driver in the field to dip beneath the 49-second barrier – the Speedworks Motorsport-backed Toyota Gazoo Racing UK driver advanced to eighth by mid-distance, before zeroing rapidly onto the tail of a multi-car scrap over the bottom step of the podium.

After catching Dan Lloyd, Butcher's relentless pressure paid off on the last lap when the Vauxhall ran wide and the Fifer needed no second invitation to nip through into seventh behind the wheel of his British-built Toyota Corolla GR Sport – marking a seven-place improvement upon his grid position in a race in which very few of his rivals did much overtaking at all.

"It’s fair to say it was a challenging weekend but one that ended on a really promising note," Butcher commented.

"I wasn’t 100 per cent comfortable in practice and, due to the power-steering problem, I only got one proper run-in during qualifying – for the rest of the session, I was struggling to get the car to even turn into the corners. I managed to post a reasonable lap time to put us in the midfield but we knew we were in for a long race day from there.

"I have to give credit to the team because everybody stayed back super-late on Saturday night to delve into the data and on-board footage in an effort to figure out what we needed to do, and our focus for Sunday was firmly on moving forward, staying out of trouble and keeping ourselves in the game.

"We improved the car in every race, and the last one was the best I’ve ever felt in the Corolla – to pass some of the top guys in the championship and achieve my first fastest lap with the Toyota felt like a real turning point for me, and the whole crew did a fantastic job to give me a car that allowed me to push and fight right to the very end.

"When you get it into the window like that, it’s such a great feeling and I thoroughly enjoyed every lap of that race.

"We have potentially found something in the car now that will allow me to really get the most out of it from here on in, and in that respect, the result felt almost like a win.

"It was great to finish the weekend with such a positive performance, and that sets us up nicely going off into the summer break."

The BTCC now takes a five-week break, resuming at Cheshire's Oulton Park over the weekend of July 31 and August 1.

Butcher and Shedden are 10th and 13th respectively in the standings, with 60 and 53 points, as Ash Sutton leads with 116.