Gordon Shedden ends season on high despite first race drama
Gordon Shedden was pleased to round his season off with a stunning drive to victory at a sodden Brands Hatch after looking like neither Honda cars would make the grid after a major shunt in the opening race of the day.
Shedden’s Honda Civic Tourer required a completely new rear end after suffering a 28G impact at Paddock Hill Bend on the opening lap of the first encounter, while team-mate Matt Neal got caught in the crossfire, injuring himself in the process and forcing him out for the rest of the day.
However, a major rebuild project from the Honda Racing Team mechanics saw the 2012 champion back on the grid for race two, working up to seventh before storming to victory in a very wet reverse-grid season finale.
“It’s a nice way to finish,” Shedden told TouringCarTimes. “I’ve been saying the car’s been mega all year, which it has. At the end of race one there was a question over if we could come back out, the impact was 28G, a big, big shunt. To have both cars mangled isn’t so good, but what a nice way to finish. Nice to end on a bit of a high, it didn’t look like that six hours ago.
“I’m proud of what everyone’s achieved this year. It was a bold project at the start of the year, people thought we were crazy but we’ve won races, we’ve created a bit of history.”
Moving forward to the future, the question remains as to how the Honda Racing Team will look in 2015, with it being understood that Honda won’t be making a decision until they’ve set their budget for the upcoming Formula 1 project. However, Shedden remains confident of Honda support, eyeing a switch to the Civic Type R for next season.
“We’d love to race Type R,” said Shedden. “That looks fantastic. Whatever we do we need to be competitive. And I hope we can do something with the Type R, I think it’ll be a cracking little touring car.”
“Next year’s still being talked about now,” added Honda Racing Team technical director Barry Plowman. “Watch this space. There’ll definitely be something.”
