Gorodn Shedden emerged from another unpredictable Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship meeting at Donington Park lying third in the championship, saying that Honda are still improving after a brace of podiums for the Scot.
The 2012 champion showed his card in Saturday qualifying at the Leicester circuit, joining pole-sitter Colin Turkington on the front row before securing the first of two rostrum visits in race one on Sunday.
A struggle to 14th on the softer tyres in race two left Shedden fighting through the pack in the final race of the day, where he evaded a flurry of incidents on his way to third spot in a race won by Honda Yuasa Racing team-mate, Matt Neal.
“It was nuts”, Shedden commented to The Checkered Flag on the third race of the day. “It was just so shaken up because of the different weights and the different people on soft tyres.
“In that last race we obviously had no weight and the right tyre, so you can really get the most of it.”
“Because people were braking so randomly and so early, it was like a cork in the bottle with cars pinging out if it left, right and centre!”
The softer compound Dunlop tyre witnessed a significant drop-off in performance towards the end of races at Donington, Shedden himself dropping over two seconds off the pace in the second race of the day when he wore them while several rivals – including team-mate Neal – endured similar struggles over the Sunday.
Photo: btcc.net
On soft tyres, Shedden slipped to 14th in race two having started on pole position, adding: “It was always going to be pretty chaotic [n race three] with so many cars on the softer tyre.
“It wasn’t a case of it dropping off a little bit – everyone’s tyres fell off a cliff. With that, it’s almost like you’re in a different race when it hits.
“If somebody is carrying a lot of weight and soft tyres – they were in a world of their own.”
Shedden said that the Civic will continue to see improvements, admitting that the car was on the pace but does not yet feel as comfortable as the team would like it heading to Thruxton.
“We’ve still got some work to do, it’s not quite where we want it to be yet. But yeah, it’s good”, Shedden said.
“We had strong pace and scored a solid haul of points to move up a couple of spots in the championship to third. We qualified higher than I thought we would with the ballast, and we carried that speed over.
“It’s going to be hard at Thruxton”, concluded the Scot. “We need to tame it a little, but once we do, there’s a lot more potential still to come.”
Shedden jumps up to third in the standings, just eight points adrift of his team-mate Neal, while Honda/Team Dynamics move to the top of the Manufacturers’ Championship.
