Shedden “can’t wait” to run new Honda at Knockhill

Gordon Shedden is looking forward to running the new Honda engine at his home circuit this weekend, and get his championship fight back on track.

The Honda Racing Team introduced a new grade of engine at Silverstone, but with a problem on one of the new engines, it was left to Matt Neal to run the new engine alone at the high speed circuit

Running unballasted in race two, the engine clocked 130.1mph down the Wellington Straight, within 1mph of the top recorded speed of the weekend for Team Aon Ford Focus, and with just 18kg of ballast on Shedden’s Civic heading to his home race, the Scottish driver is hopeful of some strong results at his home track, and for the remaining rounds of the season.

“The strength of the Civic is braking and cornering, adn there’s a lot more of those in the next three rounds,” said Shedden to TouringCarTimes.

“The new step in engine certainly looks to be a great improvement, I can’t wait to get that in my car and get out at Knockhill.”

The Hondas have lost out in the championship coming out of the mid-season break, with Chevrolet and Team Aon scoring strongly, but the Honda Racing Team have still kept in touch in the title battle, with Neal and Shedden 23 and 33 points behind with 52 points available from a race weekend.

On trying to keep up with the improved performance of the Silverline Chevrolet team, and the turbo-charged Ford Focus, Shedden said:
“We’ve got to try and improve what we’ve got and do the best job we possibly can and see where we end up.”