Shedden confident going into race day at Thruxton

Gordon Shedden is confident going into race day at Thruxton starting from pole position with the Honda Civic, as Team Dynamics chase their first win at the circuit since 2006.

Shedden took his first British Touring Car Championship pole at Thruxton five years ago and went on to secure only his second career victory that day with the Honda Integra, with team-mate Matt Neal taking victory in race two which was the team’s last win at the circuit.

The 32-year-old Scottish driver is confident however that the car should be in good stead in tomorrow’s race.

“We’ve done a race run in both free practices and got to the end comfortably, so that bodes well for tomorrow,” he said to TouringCarTimes.

“I’ve just got to keep my head down and do what we’ve done today and hopefully we’re there or thereabouts come the end. It’s always a bit of a marathon rather than a sprint round here.”

Despite the team’s maximum boost setting being reduced to 1.6 bar, from the maximum that was available to the team of 1.8 in the first two rounds of the season, the car was still able to secure the Honda Racing Team their third pole position in three races, which Shedden believes proves the performance of the Civic is not just down to the engine.

“What you’ve got to look at is a Vauxhall with 18 kilos of ballast in it has done the same time as me. A works Honda car, with no ballast should be capable of qualifying on pole, and we nearly didn’t.”

“We’ve been absolutely been saved around here by the fact that our car’s a good handling chassis. It’s nothing to do with the turbos, we’ve been penalised a lot in the last week, and it is the fact that the car’s good round the corners that has got me a lap time out of it today.”