Gordon Shedden celebrates Dynamic decade

The 2016 BTCC season will not only see Gordon Shedden defend his title for the second time, but will also mark ten years since the start of one of the strongest partnerships in the paddock.

The Scot has been at Team Dynamics, who have run the works Honda programme since 2010, for all but six meetings in his BTCC career, and has only once finished outside the top four when contesting a full season.

“I’ve only had one year where I haven’t been at Dynamics,” said Shedden. “We are still a family team, okay we run a manufacturer programme but we’re a family team with family values. I talk to them every day and I guess from my point of view I’m more involved than just being a driver, I enjoy that as well.”

Shedden, who is now the most successful Scottish BTCC driver of all time, actually began in the BTCC away from Team Dynamics. A one-off entry with GR Motorsport in a Ford Focus at Knockhill in 2001 was the first time a BTCC crowd saw Shedden on track, visiting the top step of the Production Class in race two.

Five years later, Shedden joined Team Dynamics alongside Matt Neal in the Honda Integra Type R. It took only three meetings for the Scot to take his first outright BTCC victory, winning the opening race at Oulton Park. A further victory at Thruxton and two more at Donington Park were enough to prove Shedden was a star in the making en route to fourth in the standings at the end of the year.

With 2007 came a switch to the Honda Civic, although the lineup of Neal and Shedden remained unchanged. Another impressive season from Shedden saw him finish third in the overall standings, ahead of his much more experienced and, at that time, two-time champion team-mate.

Neal left Team Dynamics the following year to driver for the works Vauxhall team, promoting Shedden to team leader alongside Tom Chilton. With only two wins to his name in 2008, he could only manage seventh in the standings, while Chilton had to settle for tenth.

The 2009 season currently stands as the only season where Shedden has raced away from Team Dynamics in the BTCC. He did still race with them however, completing the opening three races at Brands Hatch before being replaced by returning champion James Thompson.

Having signed for Clyde Valley Racing, he appeared at Snetterton and Knockhill, taking his season’s best of second at his home event. The team pulled out after Knockhill, forcing Shedden to miss the Silverstone round. He returned for the final two rounds in the Clyde Valley car, but this time under the Club SEAT banner. Having only taken 34 points all season, the Scot suffered his worst result in his career, finishing 14th overall.

With Team Dynamics becoming an official Honda team in 2010, both Shedden and Neal were re-signed by the team. While neither driver could take the overall championship, they successfully gained the manufacturer’s championship for Honda at the first time of asking.

Since 2010, Honda have won all but one manufacturer’s title, losing out to MG in 2014. Meanwhile, Shedden has failed to finish outside the top three of the drivers’ standings since returning to the Pershore-based team.

Shedden and Neal dominated the 2011 season, with a Honda driver reaching the top step at every meeting. Neal took the spoils at the end of the year, with Shedden second, although the latter only had to wait 12 months for a championship of his own. Shedden’s title-winning 2012 campaign, with a career best of eight wins in a season, was enough to earn him his first National Driver of the Year accolade at the annual Autosport Awards.

A runner’s up spot to Andrew Jordan came in 2013, before the team switched to the Honda Civic Tourer, only the second ever estate car to race in the BTCC, in 2014. While the Civic Tourer was not as competitive as its predecessor, Shedden still managed to wrestle it to three race victories and third in the overall standings.

With 2015 came another car change for the Honda team, bringing the highly anticipated Civic Type-R to the series. Consistency was key in 2015 for Shedden’s second title-winning year, only taking four wins, exactly half than his first championship win in 2012.

Over the past ten years, Shedden has become a staple character in the Team Dynamics garage, with the partnership between Neal and Shedden one of the most formidable across the BTCC paddock.

“I don’t think it does us any harm,” Shedden told TouringCarTimes, when asked about the success of when he teams up with Neal. “I think it was the middle of last year or the year before where somebody had gone to another team boss and said ‘so what do you need? What’s the next step to make sure you can always challenge for championships?’ and the other team manager apparently turned round and said ‘you need Matt and Flash’, we can’t replicate it. Nobody else has got that relationship up or down the pit lane, its one of our strengths.”

Team-mate Matt Neal is also full of praise for his long-term team-mate, having gone on record many times with his belief that Shedden could go on to become one of the most successful drivers in BTCC history.

“He spends enough time at my house!” joked Neal when asked if Shedden is now officially part of the Dynamics family. “I think if you look at the way he’s matured and come on, okay he’s a double champion now but I still think he’s one of the most majorly underrated drivers for speed out there. He’s very, very fast in whatever you put him in, how he’s matured and grown within the team, he’s a real asset.

“With his speed and his work ethic, how he works with us, he’s a good focus, he’s part of the family now and he’s already the most successful Scottish driver. I still know how to ring a time out of a car and go quickly but he is properly on the top of his game at the moment, and I think he could go a long way. There’s a lot more race wins and championships left in that boy yet.”