Knockhill hosts the champion’s home race this weekend

The Scottish circuit of Knockhill will host the seventh round of this year’s Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship this weekend and will welcome home its champion, Gordon Shedden, racing there for the first time with the No.1 on his car.

Shedden has some work to do at home in order to close up in the title however. His Honda Racing team-mate Matt Neal leads the standings and is 22 points ahead, whilst the independent Honda of Eurotech Racing’s Andrew Jordan sits in second position just nine points behind Neal.

“The Civic’s handling is fantastic at the moment and it’s doing everything I want it to do. We’ll just go out there and give it 110 per cent, but the competition will be coming from all angles,” said Shedden.

“Knockhill is probably the polar opposite to Snetterton [scene of the last BTCC round] in terms of the length of track and the undulations,” he added. “It always provides spectacular racing and it’s great for the fans to see the cars bouncing over the kerbs and the drivers really having to work.”

The latest calculation of boost adjustments has seen Hondas rivals get a reduction for this weekend, which should help the Hondas be more competitive at Knockhill than they were there last year. A Team Dynamics-built Honda Civic has been able to win at least one race at every meeting so far this season.

“We’ve had the boost work more in our favour this time, but we’re still carrying a lot of weight [thanks to the BTCC’s success ballast system],” said Championship leader Matt Neal. “Knockhill is a handling circuit, but it also has two long straights.

“I think both the MGs will be very fast, as well as the BMWs, and Flash is always very quick at Knockhill. Andy Jordan has also been fast everywhere this year and I don’t see why this weekend will be any different.”

Andrew Jordan carries a handicap into this weekend however, after being served with his third driving infraction of the season, the 24-year-old will drop six places from whichever position he qualifies for the first race at Knockhill, in addition to carrying the 36kg of success ballast throughout Saturday and the first race in respect of his position in the Championship.

While Honda had a bad time at Knockhill last year, the rear-wheel drive BMWs, then the Super 2000 320sis of West Surrey Racing, dominated, with current driver Rob Collard and then driver Tom Onslow-Cole scoring 1-2 finishes in the first two races. The team will be hoping for similar success with the new Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) specification 125is, with 2009 champion Colin Turkington the best-placed non-Honda driver in the standings after a strong weekend at Snetterton earlier this month.

Jason Plato will also be hoping for a much better weekend at Knockhill, after a troubled meeting at Snetterton with two DNFs in the MG6 severely hampering his title challenge. The two-time champion is now exactly 50 points adrift of arch-rival Matt Neal in the drivers standings, with 67 points available at each race weekend.

Also on a roll are the Motorbase Performance team with their Airwaves-backed Ford Focus STs. The Kent-based team had a dismal first half of the season, well below their expectations for the new NGTC specification Focus, but with Aron Smith and Mat Jackson claiming three podiums between them at Snetterton, their first of the season, the team are hoping to carry that form to Knockhill.

“I think we have the right to feel confident coming off our most successful weekend to date,” said Smith. “Knockhill has quickly become my favourite track on the calendar and being honest, it’s where my season really took off last year.

“It’s a great feeling to be going into a race weekend knowing that we now have a car to be challenging at the front so hopefully we can continue on from where we left off at Snetterton and get some more silverware for Airwaves Racing.”

There are a number of driver changes for this weekend’s race, principally at the merry-go-round Tony Gilham Racing team, with Jack Goff sitting out this weekend due to budget issues and being replaced by BTCC stalwart Paul O’Neill in the Vauxhall Insignia, which will be the Widnes-driver’s first BTCC race since Knockhill last year, then with the Speedworks Motorsport team.

Taking over the second Insignia, raced so far this season by James Cole and Robb Holland, will be Scottish Legends racer Kieran Gallagher, in a one-off deal, racing with the number of his age, 23.

Another driver making his debut with a car also featuring the number of his age is Aiden Moffat, the 16-year-old taking over behind the wheel of the repaired Super 2000 specification Chevrolet Cruze of Finesse Motorsport, with Joe Girling and the M247 team having decided to stand down for the remainder of this season.

Not making the trip past the border will be Eurotech Racing’s Jeff Smith, or AmD Tuning’s James Kaye, which reduces the entry to Knockhill to a still paddock bulging 26 cars.

BTCC Knockhill Entry List

No – Driver – Team – Car – Class
1 – Gordon Shedden – Honda Yuasa Racing Team (Team Dynamics) – Honda Civic – NGTC
2 – Matt Neal – Honda Yuasa Racing Team (Team Dynamics) – Honda Civic – NGTC
5 – Rob Collard – West Surrey Racing – BMW 125i M – NGTC
6 – Tom Onslow-Cole – Tony Gilham Racing – Volkswagen CC – NGTC
7 – Mat Jackson – Motorbase Performance – Ford Focus ST – NGTC
8 – Aron Smith – Motorbase Performance – Ford Focus ST – NGTC
10 – Daniel Welch – Welch Motorsport – Proton Persona – NGTC
11 – Frank Wrathall – Dynojet Racing – Toyota Avensis – NGTC
12 – David Nye – Welch Motorsport – Ford Focus ST – S2000
13 – Rob Austin – Rob Austin Racing – Audi A4 – NGTC
14 – Will Bratt – Rob Austin Racing – Audi A4 – NGTC
16 – Aiden Moffat – Finesse Motorsport – Chevrolet Cruze – S2000
17 – Dave Newsham – Speedworks Motorsport – Toyota Avensis – NGTC
18 – Nick Foster – West Surrey Racing – BMW 125i M – NGTC
23 – Kieran Gallagher – Tony Gilham Racing – Vauxhall Insignia – NGTC
29 – Colin Turkington – West Surrey Racing – BMW 125i M – NGTC
33 – Adam Morgan – Cicely Racing – Toyota Avensis – NGTC
39 – Warren Scott – Tony Gilham Racing – Volkswagen CC – NGTC
43 – Lea Wood – JWT Performance – Vauxhall Vectra – S2000
44 – Andy Neate – IP Tech Race Engineering – Chevrolet Cruze – NGTC
48 – Ollie Jackson – Speedworks Motorsport – Toyota Avensis – NGTC
58 – Paul O’Neill – Tony Gilham Racing – Vauxhall Insignia – NGTC
66 – Liam Griffin – Motorbase Performance – Ford Focus ST – S2000
77 – Andrew Jordan – Eurotech Racing – Honda Civic – NGTC
88 – Sam Tordoff – Triple Eight Race Engineering – MG6 – NGTC
99 – Jason Plato – Triple Eight Race Engineering – MG6 – NGTC

BTCC Knockhill Success Ballast

Driver – Ballast
Matt Neal – +45kg
Andrew Jordan – +36kg
Gordon Shedden – +27kg
Colin Turkington – +18kg
Jason Plato – +9kg

BTCC Knockhill Timetable

Saturday 24th August
09:35 – Free Practice 1
12:10 – Free Practice 2
15:05 – Qualifying

Sunday 25th August
11:45 – Race 1 (24 Laps)
14:17 – Race 2 (24 Laps)
17:07 – Race 3 (24 Laps)

Updated at 15:24 BST with the information that James Kaye will also miss this weekend’s round at Knockhill