Gordon Shedden hails “one of my best drives”

Gordon Shedden has described his dramatic race three win at Donington Park as one of the best drives of his touring car career.

The Scot gave his Honda Racing Team a first win for the new Civic Tourer, following a last corner pass on West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington.

It was a mighty charge from Shedden, who had to fight his way past team-mate Matt Neal, Triple Eight’s Jason Plato and Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson to put himself in a position to challenge Turkington.

The two made contact and went through the gravel at the final chicane before crossing the line, with the stewards later upholding the result after a protest from Dick Bennetts’ team.

Shedden is now third in the points standings, just two behind joint leaders Andrew Jordan and Jason Plato going into Thruxton.

“It was just an absolutely epic race, from the first corner to the last corner,” said Shedden to TouringCarTimes.

“I think it epitomises what touring car racing is. I had to avoid Andy [Jordan] when he either got tagged or lost the rear, and I had to think my way through.

“The car came alive. Once I got to second, I said [to the team] to keep tabs on Colin’s laptimes, and they said ‘you’ve got five laps to go, you’re six seconds behind, but you’re going a second a lap quicker, so get your foot down.’

“It was an amazing last lap. Colin backed off into McLeans really early, and I had to go around the outside there. He went so slowly in there and backed it up that I was in third gear rather than fourth.

“I went all the way around the outside and he put me in the gravel there. He got a big drift coming out of Coppice and I had some mega traction, and was past on the outside.

“With these soft tyres, when they go, it’s like a switch. I think he decided to brake where I braked, and he couldn’t make the corner without hitting me. I just think he ran out of grip.”

Looking at the weekend as a whole, Shedden added: “We struggled a bit in race one, and we definitely improved it for race two. It wasn’t perfect by a long way, but the thing was a missile on soft tyres in race three.”