Gordon Shedden on “maximum attack” for qualifying

Gordon Shedden will be on “maximum attack” in qualifying as he aims to secure his second BTCC title at Brands Hatch.

The 2012 champion set the third fastest time in second free practice, with less than two tenths of a second separating Shedden from his championship rivals, Jason Plato and Colin Turkington.

“Jason and Colin have both had all of Warren [Scott]’s carry-over tyres [after his Silverstone crash] so they’ve had new tyres in both sessions and we haven’t because we raced at Silverstone,” Shedden told TouringCarTimes. “Which is where I think the difference was in the first session and it was certainly different in FP2.

“To be honest it was a bit of a scrappy session, I never got the best out of the tyres, when they were good I had some traffic and had a bit of a slide so hopefully we can tidy it up for qualifying.”

Shedden could mathematically secure the championship in race one on Sunday if he takes maximum points and the Team BMR drivers non-score, but with the times so close, the Scot knows it could swing either way come qualifying.

“All I’ve got to do is the best I can, but it’s so close. There’s a lot of cars within a few tenths of each other and that can swing either way if you don’t hook your lap up, so it’ll be maximum attack in qualifying.