Gordon Shedden: “Things can quickly change”

Gordon Shedden admits that the fight for the 2016 BTCC title is still wide open heading to Silverstone this weekend, with the possibility that anything could still happen in the final six races of the season.

Shedden picked up an impressive haul of points at Rockingham last time out to close the gap to Sam Tordoff and Honda team-mate Matt Neal in the standings, leaving him in third spot ahead of the penultimate weekend of racing.

The Scot will hope to take more points off the pair ahead this weekend at a circuit that isn’t expected to favour either the Honda Civic Type-R or the BMW 125i M Sport; meaning the main men in the title race could be in for a challenging time on track.

Despite that, defending champion Shedden said he felt confident about the latest three rounds of the season and was firmly focused on scoring as many points as possible to keep his dream of a third title alive.

“It’s fair to say Rockingham was an unexpectedly good weekend – one that fired us right back into the thick of the title fight,” he said. “Silverstone’s National Circuit is essentially composed of three long straights, which doesn’t play to the strengths of our car but the weather can obviously intervene and the reversed grid throws up opportunities, too.

“We’ve seen how quickly everything can turn on its head in this championship and it doesn’t take much to make a mistake when the pressure is this high, but Matt and I have both been there before, done it and have the T-shirt to prove it so that experience could prove to be significant.

“That said, the other guys are all hugely experienced too, so there are no real excuses for anyone. Ultimately, the name of the game is points accumulation and the goal for Silverstone has to be to try to further home in on the championship lead.

“We will need a little bit of luck, but rest assured we will be giving it everything we can and will duke this out right the way to the end.”