Gordon Shedden said that a hat-trick of top-four finishes filled him and Halfords Yuasa Racing with “a lot of confidence” after the third Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship meeting of the season at Thruxton.
The reigning champion collected a brace of podium finishes and a fourth place from the visit to Hampshire, defying the burden of carrying 75kg success ballast in Saturday’s qualifying session.
Honda dominated qualifying and race one with Matt Neal claiming his 60th BTCC victory, Shedden following his team-mate home despite a spirited attack on the opening lap of the race.
A consistent weekend cemented Shedden’s second spot in the championship after his exclusion from Donington Park, now 17 points behind series leader, Tom Ingram.
Shedden said: “You always want more of course, but we left with three very solid results and a strong points haul – and that gives us a lot of confidence going to Oulton Park.”
“I got a slightly better start than Matt in race one, but he was a lot lighter than me so I didn’t force the issue too much. It was fantastic for him to take his 60th BTCC win, and a tremendous effort from the boys to get a one-two.”
The Scot came closest to success in the second race of the day, one that was tainted by incidents for both Daniel Lloyd and Martin Depper which shortened the race to just six laps.
A mere 0.212s separated Shedden from eventual winner, Rob Collard, the Team BMW man having squeezed ahead of Shedden’s Civic Type-R heading into the final chicane on lap one.
Shedden bemoaned the timing of the second stoppage, adding “it was disappointing that we didn’t have another five or six laps in race two because we were clearly quicker than Rob, and then race three was another good finish.”
Photo: Halfords Yuasa Racing