Gordon Shedden is confident that Halfords Yuasa Racing can be the best of the front-wheel drive runners as the British Touring Car Championship heads to Croft this weekend [18th-19th June].
After claiming all three race victories and their first ever 1-2-3 finish at the 2.13 mile Yorkshire circuit last season, many are tipping West Surrey Racing for further success in their rear-wheel drive BMW 125i M-Sport machines, on a track traditionally well-suited to the setup of the grids RWD machines.
Defending champion Shedden enters the weekend placed fourth in the Drivers championship, some 27 points adrift of standings leader Sam Tordoff.
He endured a frustrating weekend at Oulton Park a fortnight ago as a puncture on the penultimate lap of the final race robbed him of an almost certain podium finish in second. Team-mate Matt Neal went on to win the race.
Looking ahead to the weekend, Shedden pointed to the previous results of Halfords Yuasa Racing (Team Dynamics) at Croft as an indicator of their performance.
“Historically, we’ve gone pretty well around Croft; like Oulton, it’s a circuit that tends to favour rear wheel-drive cars, but we’ve generally led the way amongst the front wheel-drive brigade.”
“There was some great racing there last year, and I’m sure we can expect more of the same again. It’s a fun circuit with a real mix of corners, which makes perfecting the car’s set-up quite a challenge – but one that I relish.” he commented.
He also expressed his amazement at the variety of winners in the category so far this campaign, with an incredible nine different victors from twelve contests so far this season.
Keeping this in mind, Shedden echoed the sentiments of Matt Neal in underlining consistent points scoring finishes as the priority if he is to stand a good chance of defending his title come Brands Hatch this Autumn.
“Given how fiercely-disputed the BTCC is right now, every weekend is pivotal – it’s incredible to think we’ve already had nine different winners from the first 12 races!”
“With that in mind, we have to be targeting three strong points finishes, which we would have had at Oulton but for the late puncture in race three. The cards haven’t particularly fallen my way in that respect recently, so hopefully we can turn that trend around.”