Gordon Shedden admits that ‘points accumulation’ is at the forefront of his preparations for the penultimate round of this years British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone next weekend.
The defending champion and works Honda pilot currently has a deficit of twenty-one points to standings leader Sam Tordoff, but a third race victory of the season at Rockingham last time out as brought the 37-year old back into the title fight. Team-mate Matt Neal sits second ahead of Shedden, just five points behind Tordoff.
“It’s fair to say Rockingham was an unexpectedly good weekend – one that fired us right back into the thick of the title fight.” admitted Shedden.
However, the forty-four time race winner believes that the National circuit at Silverstone, home of the British Grand Prix, is unlikely to play to the strengths the Honda Civic Type-R possesses, such as a strong cornering speed.
“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.”
This years championship fight sees the prospect of Tordoff securing his first ever BTCC title, whilst the two in closest proximity to the 27-year old BMW pilot have a cumulative total of five series wins between them, a factor Shedden believes could hold some significance as the pressure mounts.
“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.”