Gordon Shedden has described the driving standards in the final British Touring Car Championship race at Silverstone as ‘being like bumper cars’ after the Scot was shovelled off the circuit on his way to a points-less finish.
Having taken two points finishes earlier in the day – crucially behind both title rivals Ash Sutton and Colin Turkington – Shedden was placed in third on the starting line-up for the reverse-grid final race of the day.
Unfortunately for the Scot, he slipped backwards in a frantic race, which saw him end lap one in sixth before later being knocked off the circuit by Rob Austin.
“That clearly wasn’t the weekend we wanted,” said Shedden. “We knew Silverstone wouldn’t be our ideal circuit, and we struggled with the weight in qualifying. When it’s as close as it was, that really hurts you – just a couple of tenths would have put us on the second row of the grid.
“Race one was a similar story, which made it tough to progress, but once the ballast was taken out for race two, the Civic Type R came alive. It’s always difficult to gain much ground when the margins are so tight, but we were on the move and I think if we’d had another lap or two, we could have finished even higher.
“Unfortunately, things ended on a pretty low note in race three. It was like bumper cars out there with some crazy moves being pulled, but I was staying out of trouble until Austin hit me.”
As a result of another tricky weekend, Shedden is effectively out of the title race – it would require a miracle whereby the Scot won all three races in the finale as well as post the fastest lap in all three races to win.
“Although I’m mathematically still just in the title fight, realistically it’s not going to happen this year – but that won’t stop me from pushing flat-out at Brands Hatch to finish the season on a high!”