Gordon Shedden was ‘absolutely delighted’ to beat Colin Turkington to pole position in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton, giving the Scot his first BTCC pole in almost five years.
Shedden edged out Team BMW’s Turkington for the top spot by a tenth and a half in the second ‘shootout’ part of qualifying, giving him his first BTCC pole since Rockingham in 2016.
The Team Dynamics driver admitted that he had been cautious with his use of tyres, given the different compound used at Snetterton compared to Thruxton previously meant that there were fewer tyres available than in previous visits to the Norfolk circuit.
“It’s a real strange position for this weekend because we come into this round with no carryover tyres, so everyone is juggling the availability of tyres,” explained Shedden.
“We sat out quite a lot of FP2 to give ourselves the best chance in qualifying and wow, it’s paid of fantastically – pole position, the sun is shining, so I’m absolutely delighted.”
Shedden left the season opening meeting in just 11th in the drivers’ standings, with the three-time champion hoping to now receive the rewards from the pace he believes he has with his Honda Civic.
“It was a last lap job for me. I think Colin was on pole before that and I managed to find a good quarter of a second in that last lap. Fantastic rewards for everyone, an awesome day!
“We had good pace at Thruxton just lady luck didn’t fall my way for one reason or another. We have plenty of pace and it’s now about putting it into practice.
“It’s great to start from pole position tomorrow and fingers crossed we can have a slightly less eventful day tomorrow than we did at Thruxton five weeks ago and score plenty of points.
“We’ve got to do the best we can and make the best of it. There will be different strategies as the day goes on, some people on the soft tyres, obviously with the option tyre, and different amounts of success ballast as the day goes on.
“But I’m happy, I’m comfortable with the car I’ve got, and we’ve just got to go and make the best of it.
“If it’s good enough it’s good enough, and if it’s not we’ll try to score as many points as we can.”