Gordon Shedden believes that both he and Halfords Yuasa Racing need to find more pace ahead of qualifying this afternoon, after the defending British Touring Car champion finished the opening practice session of the weekend at Rockingham in sixth, 0.484 seconds behind pace-setter Andrew Jordan.
‘Flash’ showed his hand late in the forty-minute session, which was subject to three red flag stoppages, and ended it as the highest placed of the championship contenders.
With the circuit also experiencing an infrequent drizzle of rain, track conditions proved tricky to predict. Championship leader Sam Tordoff was the only notable driver to get caught out, as he spun his BMW into the gravel at Tarzan hairpin.
Reflecting to TouringCars.net shortly after stepping from his Honda Civic Type-R, Shedden insists that he will need to be quicker to stand any chance of competing for pole position later today.
“We need to try and find some pace. Easier said than done, but that’s what we’ll have to try and do, that’s for sure!” he explained.
The weekend sees the debut of the harder compound of Dunlop tyre at Rockingham, with it’s usage expanded from Thruxton for this campaign.
TouringCars.net understands that this should adversely affect the rear-wheel drive runners, and could prove to aid Shedden’s attempt to close the championship deficit as the field no longer have to run the soft tyre at this event, traditionally a downfall of the front-wheel drive cars around the 1.94 Rockingham Speedway.
However, Shedden admitted it still remains a step into the unknown for everybody and refused to be drawn into any suggestion this could play into his hands.
“I don’t know, nobody’s run them so we don’t know what to expect, but weather could play a part tomorrow, temperature could play a part, so we’ll see what we’ve got. It’s the same for everyone.”
The second free practice session gets underway at 12:00, with the latest conditions at Rockingham a lot brighter.