THE Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship reaches its climax this weekend and Rory Butcher says he's motivated to end on a high.

The 33-year-old will go into the final three rounds of his third full season competing in the series this weekend still in with a mathematical chance of snatching the drivers' title for the first time.

A trio of points-scoring finishes at Snetterton last time out – which saw him claim two fourth places and one fifth – leaves him fifth in the standings on 246 points, 63 adrift of leader Colin Turkington, ahead of the meeting at Brands Hatch Indy.

Butcher claimed his first BTCC victory at the circuit last year, while racing for the Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid/RCIB Insurance team, but has accumulated his greatest number of podium finishes in a season during 2020 while behind the wheel of Motorbase Performance's Ford Focus ST.

Two race wins, at Oulton Park and his home track of Knockhill, have been supplemented by a pair of second- and third-place finishes to help him achieve his goal of remaining in contention going into the final race weekend.

Although he admits his title chances are slim, Butcher has been heartened by how he and his team have performed in a shorter, condensed competition of 27 races between August and November.

Speaking to the BTCC website, he commented: "It's really great to be involved in the top five going into the final round and still have a chance of winning the championship.

"It is only mathematical, and I am very much on the outside of that, but it's good. We came into this season with the goal to come out with the new Ford Focus ST and fight for the championship, and I think we've given it a good run.

"We've had some misfortune – some out of our control and other things that we could potentially have done differently – but, as a whole, we definitely put up a good challenge this season.

"I think the mindset is to try and finish this year on a high. Tom Ingram and Dan Cammish (fourth and third in the standings respectively) are about 29 points or more ahead of me, so they're not really in striking distance either, so my goal is to focus on just finishing this season on a high.

"What will be will be but we're going to be at the home circuit for Motorbase – their base is literally a few miles down the road – so we want to just have a great end to the season, hopefully bring home some silverware, and go into the winter feeling positive about what we've achieved."

Butcher added: "We definitely have learned a lot in this middle part of the season, and we all feel personally within the team that, going into next year, we're going to hit the ground running and arrive at these circuits that we had some stumbling blocks at and, hopefully, arrive in FP1 with a car that's fast.

"I think what's important is consistency across the season. I've had a couple of low points, some out of our control, and others maybe we could've done something differently, me included, and it's trying to have an even keel across the season.

"For me as a driver, that's what I'm aiming for in 2021."

The final three rounds of the championship will be live on ITV4 on Sunday from 9.20am.