Toyota GAZOO Racing UK has revealed its plans for the 2023 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season, with an expanded three-car team confirmed for this year's series which starts at Donington park on 22/23 April.
Established race winner Rory Butcher returns behind the wheel of a Corolla GR Sport for a third successive season as he aims to build upon his strongest championship position of fifth this year. The 36-year-old Scotsman is a former BTCC Independents' champion and will be hoping to carry his form from the tail end of last year, when he acheived five podium finishes from six starts, into the new campaign.
Butcher is joined one more by Ricky Collard, who returned to the grid last season for his first full year in the BTCC.
For the first time, the Speedworks Motorsport-run outfit will enter three cars, with George Gamble - a standout rookie during the 2022 campaign - coming on board for his sophomore season in the championship.
The team's trio of eye-catching Corollas will be powered for the first time by a Toyota-derived engine, tuned to BTCC-competition spec by Neil Brown Engineering.
Butcher said: "I feel like I'm going into 2023 in the best shape so far, not just in terms of the updates brought to the Corolla but also in terms of the people I have around me. It's great to have that continuity of team and car for the third year in a row, and having ended last season so strongly, I really want to pick up from where we left off and be right in the mix and gunning for glory from the outset."
Collard said: "It's no secret that some tough times last year made me seriously question my future in racing and whether or not I should carry on. But there were also a lot of positives and after talking very openly and honestly with Christian [Dick] and John [Gilbert - Speedworks Managing Director] over the winter, I realised I wanted to give this my very best shot in a competitive package, which is what I believe we've got."
Gamble said: "Joining Toyota GAZOO Racing UK is a mega opportunity for me in only my second year in the championship. To be associated with one of the world's leading manufacturers - which is successful in pretty much everything it turns its hand to - is massive, and I think I'm in a really good position."