Shedden not counting the Honda out

Gordon Shedden isn’t counting out the possibility of a good result for the Honda Racing Team tomorrow, after qualifying fifth on the grid in the Civic.

The Honda was clearly struggling in the free practice sessions, after a double victory last time out at Croft, it seemed unlikely the Honda Civic would be much higher than the midfield until the rain hit just before the qualifying session, allowing Shedden and championship leading team mate Matt Neal to rescue fifth and seventh on the grid.

Shedden was on a great run late in the session, in which he was threatening to take pole position, but slid off into the grass on the last half of the lap.

Gordon Shedden said to TouringCarTimes:
“It’s always a bit of a lottery in the wet. Fifth is okay, if I had what I had this morning I don’t think we’d have qualified fifth in the dry – so I’m quite happy with that really.”

Shedden explained the Civic’s problem at Snetterton:
“It’s just straight-line speed; we’re seven miles an hour slower than the fastest cars in the speed traps.”

The Honda Civic was hitting the speed trap down the back straight at 133mph, the only car slower was the AmD Milltek Racing VW Golf of Shaun Hollamby. Tom Chilton’s Ford Focus was the fastest car at 140mph, but no one would get near those speeds in the wet qualifying session.

With the rain rescuing the Honda’s grid position, when asked if Gordon wanted rain tomorrow, he responded:
“I don’t know, the car’s always been really really good in the dry, there’s no reason why it won’t be tomorrow; so wet or dry, we’ll be there or thereabouts, and we’ll give it everything”.