Gordon Shedden expects improvements on race day

Honda Yuasa Racing Team driver Gordon Shedden, second in the British Touring Car Championship standings to Jason Plato going into this weekend, thinks the car will perform better on race day after qualifying fifth and team-mate Matt Neal second.

The Scotsman, who’s carrying 36kg of ballast this weekend in his Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) specification Honda Civic set a time of 1:27.457 which puts him fifth on the grid, with championship rival Jason Plato on pole, just over half a second faster in the Triple Eight MG6 GT, which is carrying 45kg of success ballast.

Shedden believes his qualifying could have been better, but there’s an issue with the car which he expects the team to be able to resolve before the first race tomorrow.

“It should have been better, but we didn’t quite have balance in the car,” said Shedden to TouringCarTimes. “We didn’t improve as others did – as the track got better, we got worse, but I think we know why. I think we also got skewed a little bit by some stuff that happened this morning but I’m sure we’ve got a solution for tomorrow, so we’ll be OK.”

Shedden was one of a number of drivers who slid wide at Cascades after Jason Plato brought water on to the circuit at the corner, keeping control of the car in the slide but spoiling what was a faster lap.

“It looked very wet and it was very slippery, but it didn’t seem to affect too many people,” said Shedden. “Some quick laps got in at the end so you’ve got to say it didn’t really affect the track that much.”