Gordon Shedden is keen to build upon a solid start to his defence of his British Touring Car Championship crown when the championship reconvenes this weekend [16th-17th April] for its second meeting of the new season.
The Scot claimed the runner-up spot behind Tom Ingram in the first race of the new campaign, before emerging victorious in the second contest before ending the opening weekend at Brands Hatch in the gravel trap at Paddock Hill bend with a puncture on his Honda Civic Type R.
He enters the weekend five points adrift of team-mate Matt Neal at the summit of the Drivers championship, but is eager to build upon his tally of eight previous race victories at the Leicestershire circuit to close the gap at the top. The 2012 and 2015 series winner also pointed to the importance of keeping Halfords Yuasa Racing atop their current perch.
“Historically, we’ve had a pretty strong run there and personally, it’s one of my favourite circuits on the calendar, with plenty of good memories,” explained Shedden.
“It will be tricky with the ballast in qualifying and race one because everybody is just so close on lap times right now, but the target is to leave still sitting first and second in the points table and keep the momentum going.”
With Team BMR debuting the new Subaru manufacturer package at Brands Hatch, Honda were left in short supply of rivals at the front of the field, with a popular maiden win for Tom Ingram and the reverse grid element to the final race of the day their only obstacles as they charged to the top of each set of championship standings.
Shedden believes that with the field set to continue it’s development curve, not least with the new RML control components introduced for this season, it is vital that he and the team continue to bank as many points as possible in the early stages of the season.
“Brands Hatch was obviously a cracking start to the season, but we’re well aware that our rivals will get their act together pretty quickly, so it will be important to score as many points as we can early doors.”
With WIX Racing’s Adam Morgan just a singular point behind Shedden in the standings, the pressure is certainly on for the Scot to repeat his form this weekend, live commentary of which is available on TouringCars.net.