Gordon Shedden declared his race three triumph at Donington Park as one of the best British Touring Car Championship races he has been a part of, defeating Colin Turkington in a last-corner thriller for his first win of 2014.
The Scot rewarded his Honda Yuasa Racing squad with a hard-fought maiden win for their new-for-2014 Civic Tourer in the final encounter at the Leicester circuit, the eighth BTCC win at Donington now for the 2012 champion having boiled down to a final bend showdown.
After finishes of sixth and third in the damp opening pair of races on Sunday, Shedden began a charge through the lead pack in the much brighter final encounter of the day, passing Mat Jackson‘s Ford Focus and then Honda team-mate Matt Neal swiftly after. A move on Jason Plato at the final chicane then put Shedden up into second spot, over four seconds behind leader Turkington with only a handful of laps remaining.
The Honda man slashed over a second a lap out of the WSR BMW driver’s lead, and set up a thrilling final lap between the pair. Turkington rebuffed Shedden’s efforts firmly on the outside at McCleans, before a similar attempt at the final corner saw the two cars make contact once more and bounce through the gravel trap, Shedden emerging from the other side first for his maiden win of the 2014 season.
Shedden commented afterwards to The Checkered Flag that his race three triumph was a contender for one of the best BTCC finishes in history, saying: “Colin is a tough cookie. Outside of the car he may not come across that way, but in that last lap he was really fighting for it.
Photo Credit: Matt Sayle Photography
“That race was one of the best races I’ve been in, and that’s the kind of racing that we, and obviously the fans want to come and see. I think it epitomises what touring car racing is.
“It was just an absolutely epic race, from the first corner to the last corner; it was an amazing last lap. [Colin] got into a big drift coming out of Coppice and I had some mega traction, and was past on the outside.”
Turkington’s WSR squad lodged an appeal shortly after the race, however that was soon rejected later on Sunday evening meaning that no action would be taken from the situation.
Shedden’s win therefore sees him lie just one point behind joint series leaders Andrew Jordan and Jason Plato, in a hugely tight championship table heading to Thruxton on 3/4 May – a circuit Shedden has tasted success at for Honda five times since 2006.
