Gordon Shedden expressed his delight at claiming a third victory of the season during the opening British Touring Car Championship contest of the weekend at Rockingham.
Shedden, who converted pole position to claim a dominant 2.5 second win, also successfully managed a restart to lead home Mat Jackson and the Subaru duo of Jason Plato and Colin Turkington.
The victory sees Shedden move back into the championship frame as team-mate Matt Neal and championship leader Sam Tordoff finished 8th and 10th respectively, closing the deficit to a mere twenty-three points.
Speaking shortly after climbing from his works Honda Civic Type-R, Shedden admitted it hadn’t been the best of starts, but was pleased to find he still had the car underneath him to maintain his lead into Deene hairpin on the opening lap, and from there he was able to manage the race.
“I knew Mat [Jackson] would be coming pretty quickly. The start was okay, it didn’t feel particularly brilliant but it was just enough to keep me leading into turn two, and that was all that mattered. Delighted.” he commented.
The safety car restart, arguably, is what won the race for Shedden, as he pulled clear of Jackson and prevented the Ford Focus ST from getting a slipstream through the sweeping first corner. Shedden felt afterwards that it was certainly a restart worth complimenting.
“To be fair, it was a cracking restart. I just went a little bit early and it worked out fine, I had four or five car lengths and that was just enough to break the slipstream.”
He also pointed to the Subaru duo of Plato and Turkington, who hampered Jackson for second until the finish, as a potential factor in what enabled him to pull as far in front as he did.
“I just got some clean air, the Subarus started giving Mat Jackson a fair amount of abuse, so I could concentrate, be nice and smooth and get the win and maximum points.”
With the title race changing by the round, Shedden remained coy on his chances but was upbeat about his chances of successfully defending his crown.
“It’s another win, it’s good points and there’s still alot of racing to go yet.”
Race two starts at 13:52.