Series leader Gordon Shedden “couldn’t have asked for more”

New championship leader Gordon Shedden said he “couldn’t really have asked for any more” after netting a win, a third and a fifth at Thruxton to top the standings by eight points.

The 2012 champion dominated the opening race after passing polesitter Aron Smith at the start, and backed that up with a strong podium on maximum ballast in race two.

He then made up one place in the final race to make it a hat-trick of top fives, and he now leads Team BMR’s Colin Turkington by 114 points to 106.

Speaking after the final race, Shedden said: “We did a cracking job in qualifying – we had to really hang the car out to get those lap times – and that set us up nicely for Sunday. The car was perfectly-balanced in race trim, even with the weight on-board, and the first race was just fantastic.

“I got a great start and then just needed to control the gap, using the strengths of the Civic Type R to pull away. That earned us some extra kilos for race two, and to get a podium with maximum ballast on-board was awesome. We were really chuffed with that. The two cars ahead were both considerably lighter than me, and when I felt the tyres begin to fade, I focussed on protecting my third place.

“To then conclude the weekend with more strong points in race three was a real bonus – we couldn’t really have asked for any more. As championship leader, I’ll go to Oulton now with a whole load of ballast in the car, but we’ll worry about that in a little while.”