Gordon Shedden experiences a ‘tough’ weekend at Knockhill

Gordon Shedden described his British Touring Car Championship weekend at Knockhill as being ‘tough’ after the Team Dynamics driver missed out on the podium in all three races.

Shedden went into the weekend hoping to add to his tally of four wins around his home circuit, but in the end the Scot was never quite challenging at the front.

In qualifying, Shedden put his Honda Civic in 11^th on the grid, being just under three tenths away from the pole time, setting him with a challenging start for Sunday’s first race.

A scrappy race saw Shedden dicing with the BMW of Tom Oliphant and the Toyota of Rory Butcher, although in the end he only made up two places to finish in ninth.

Race two saw better progress as Shedden moved up to fifth, and with the top nine being reversed for race three, this also saw him start the final race from the same position.

Despite dropping to sixth at the start behind Jake Hill’s Ford, Shedden moved back up the order when he dispatched Jason Plato’s Vauxhall, before gaining fourth from Hill when Ash Sutton got in the mix a few laps later.

Shedden ultimately couldn’t catch the leading trio to have a shot at a podium and took the chequered flag in fourth.

Despite describing it as a ‘tough weekend’, Shedden has moved up to fourth in the drivers’ standings, although the points deficit to the top of the table has grown from 29 points to 43 points.

“Well, that was a tough weekend,” said the 43-year-old. “I couldn’t quite get to the sharp end in qualifying, but I was only two tenths off pole and that put me 11^th, so it shows you how close it is around here.

“Then it was a case of grinding out the results, but I’m happy to come away with an eighth, a fifth and a fourth, as that brings me right back in contention in the Championship.

“We usually go well at Thruxton so I’ll be hoping I can get a good points haul there as well!”