Gordon Shedden believes that his decision to run the soft tyre in the final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Oulton Park was the key element in taking the win.
Like Subaru’s Ash Sutton in race two, Shedden was victorious whilst running Dunlop’s softer-compound rubber at Oulton Park.
The Scot had earlier moved past Maximum Motorsport’s Josh Cook for second on lap three, before passing BMW’s Andrew Jordan at Cascades on lap 14.
Victory allowed Shedden to extend his championship lead to 16 points, having earlier secured a seventh and fourth place finish.
“It was a little bit mediocre through race one and two,” said Shedden to TouringCars.Net. “I was driving my heart out and the car was feeling good, but it was not the spectacular results of podium finishes. But points make prizes and you sometimes have to grind out results from the first two.
“I think we’ve seen today that the soft tyre has really come alive for all cars that have used it, and having that in race three, with the temperature coming up, was a good call. It was the tyre that won us race three.”
Shedden added that his pass on Jordan for the lead late in the race was completely unplanned, as he sensed an opportunity and seized it with a late lunge at Cascades.
“Andy [Jordan] just lost the balance out of the car after the safety car. It just came to us – I had no intention of passing him at Cascades on that lap, he just jumped on the brakes so early! I had to send it somewhere to avoid clattering him straight up the arse. I had racing room with Andy – we both survived with not a scratch on the car either.”