RORY BUTCHER produced his first race win of the 2023 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season on Sunday which he described as "emotional".

The 36-year-old produced a vintage performance in the final race of the series' latest race weekend at the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit to earn his 11th career triumph.

Kirkcaldy native Butcher, who has worked as an instructor at Knockhill Racing Circuit, where his father, Derek, was formerly CEO and owner, maintained his excellent record of winning at least once every season since 2019 and admitted afterwards that he had suffered a drop in confidence.

"It’s been a tough season – it seemed for a while like I had forgotten how to drive and I lost a lot of confidence, which really dragged me down, but everybody has stood by me, from the team to my sponsors and my family, and I’ve been slowly rebuilding it," he said.

"Now, it feels like the old Rory is back."

Butcher headed to the Leicestershire venue - which was hosting BTCC action for the first time in 21 years - on the back of a tough race weekend at his home circuit of Knockhill earlier this month.

After failing to finish in the opening race, he went on to place 15th and 12th in the next two, but opened much more positively this time around.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing UK team driver advanced three places from qualifying to take the first chequered flag in 11th position, before continuing his upward momentum by battling to eighth in race two.

Butcher lined up fifth for reversed-grid finale and swiftly gained ground, rising to second on lap five, before a safety car intervention carried him right onto the tail of leader, Dan Lloyd.

Once the action resumed, the Fifer upped the ante, and was primed to attack when Lloyd's car suddenly snapped sideways due to a broken driveshaft with less than half a lap to go, paving the way for him to clinch a race victory for his Speedworks Motorsport run team.

"The car was better than I was in qualifying; all the ingredients were there to put in a quick lap, but I didn’t piece it together," Butcher continued.

"Still, I knew what I needed to do, so it was just a case of trying to gain places in each race to put ourselves in the mix for the reversed grid.

"The first one was pretty feisty, with a lot of nudging and overtaking, but we made it through unscathed and then strategically worked our way up the order again in race two. The (Toyota) Corolla (car) was really strong in race three, and there was plenty of clean, door-to-door racing, which was great.

"I felt so sorry for Dan [Lloyd] – that was his win and he definitely deserved a trophy having driven so well, but at the same time, I was really happy to bring it back for the team because they deserve it too after all the hard work that everybody has put in.

"It was an emotional result for me, and super-cool to do it at our home event in front of so many people from TMUK (Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK). I was gifted that one, unquestionably, but after the season we’ve had, I will 100 per cent take it."

Butcher remains 10th in the drivers standings, and the penultimate weekend of the BTCC takes place at Silverstone over the weekend of September 23-24.