Gordon Shedden: “My car was absolutely epic today”

Reigning champion Gordon Shedden leaves Silverstone second in the standings after a fightback on race day to win the third race, after a puncture in Race 1 looked set to derail his title charge. The Honda driver says the pressure is now all on West Surrey Racing’s Sam Tordoff to defend against the Team Dynamics-run Civics at Brands Hatch next month.

The two-time champion suffered a puncture from a damaged tyre in Race 1, but worked his way forward from 23rd to finish in eighth in Race 2 which proved pivotal, as the Scotsman drew the reverse grid, and as the only front-runner on the Dunlop soft tyre in the final race, made the most out of them to claim his fourth win of the season.

“It hasn’t been clear cut if (the soft tyre was) a good thing or a bad thing today,” said Shedden to TouringCarTimes. “The rear-wheel drive cars I don’t think it’s worked for, but I think it has worked for the front-wheel drive cars, I mean my car was epic in that last race. You could have driven it around with two fingers on the steering wheel, it was the best it’s been all weekend.”

It wasn’t all plain sailing for Shedden in Race 3, after he dropped two spots at the start to WSR BMW driver Rob Collard and Motorbase’s Mat Jackson. After repassing Jackson before lap one, the 2012 and 2015 champion made his move through Becketts on the second lap to grab the lead back from Collard.

“I knew Rob was difficult to get past at the best of times and I knew he didn’t have a good run through Copse, so while he’s still bringing his tyres up to temperature I thought I’d better do something. Around the outside into Becketts probably isn’t the smartest move I’ve ever done but it worked out on this occasion,” he remarked.

Shedden is now Tordoff’s closest competitor in the title hunt, with Shedden’s own team-mate Matt Neal just two points behind and Collard six behind heading to the Brands Hatch Grand Prix.

“Sam’s in the pound seats, so it should be his to control, but he’s still got to control it. As you’ve seen today, you never know (what can happen). Look at Matt (Neal) in the first race, cruising and then two laps from home picks up a puncture and that can really affect your weekend.

“All I know is it’s different when you’re trying to win a first championship. I was a lot better prepared in ’15 than (I was in) 2012, and I’ll take all that knowledge and try and harness that for this one as well, but (Sam’s) got a good team, good car, done plenty of races, so it’s up to him.”