Photo: TCR Series

Gordon Shedden elated with pole on TCR debut in Dubai

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BTCC front-runner Gordon Shedden’s TCR International Series debut has started perfectly, with the Team WRT Volkswagen driver scoring pole position as he deputises for an absent Rob Huff this weekend in order to aid Jean-Karl Vernay’s championship battle.

The Scotsman just made it through to the second part of qualifying after setting the 14th fastest time, which was enough as the two Hyundai i30s of Gabriele Tarquini and Alain Menu weren’t eligible to progress, and with a fresh set of brakes he strung together two perfect laps to put the Golf GTI TCR on pole position at the Dubai Autodrome.

“We left it late didn’t we?” said Shedden to TouringCarTimes.

“To (have pole after) never having driven a TCR car or even sat in this until this weekend is pretty cool. We’ve had to work quite methodically throughout FP1 and FP2 to understand the car, but then we had a brake problem in Q1.

“We got up to sixth and I didn’t think there was anything else (left in the car), and the team asked if I wanted to change them and I said yes, which only gave us one lap at the end of Q1, which wasn’t enough to get any tyre temp.

Shedden starts ahead of Vernay, whose championship he’s tasked with supporting in tomorrow’s race, with the team yet to determine the best strategy, with Vernay only needing to finish ahead of his title rivals to win the championship in the first race.

“We just need to get going and stay clean. We’re better being aware of everyone else, but I understand the situation he’s in and it’s no problem,” said Shedden, hinting that team orders were highly possible.

“I’ve also never started one of these things so I might not even get off the line very well anyway. And then in (the reversed grid) Race 2 we should be able to have a good fun race from tenth and I’ll do the best I can, which is all I’ve said I want to do this weekend.”