Gordon Shedden says his exclusion from the final British Touring Car Championship race at Donington Park ends his weekend ‘on a bitter note’.
Shedden, who pulled a five-second margin over second-placed Colin Turkington in torrentially wet conditions, was subsequently adjudged by TOCA officials to have failed the ride height scruitineering checks in parc ferme and excluded from the results.
It handed Turkington the race victory and ensured Shedden would surrender the championship lead to Speedworks’ Tom Ingram.
The team was involved in further controversy during the last race with Shedden’s team-mate Matt Neal prevented from taking the restart after earlier red flags because his Civic Type R required mechanical assistance to make it from the McLeans gravel trap to the starting grid.
“That was a real rollercoaster of a weekend that unfortunately ended on a bitter note for us,” said Shedden.
“The reversed grid gave us a chance to really push on in race three and the Civic Type R was mega in the tricky conditions.
“Once I’d got into the lead, I was able to consistently pull away and manage the gap, so to subsequently be stripped of such a commanding victory was massively disappointing.
“It’s cost us the championship lead but not our momentum, and we’ll be back fighting harder than ever at Thruxton next time out to redress the balance.”
Coming into the weekend as the standings leader disadvantaged Shedden with a full quota of 75 kilograms of success ballast, hampering any significant progress in the opening two races.
Despite his later frustration the defending champion underlined his satisfaction with the car’s performance with weight on board.
“The first two races were a bit of a struggle, with maximum ballast in the first of them and hard tyres in the second, but we battled hard and came away with a couple of very solid results.”
Team Dynamics are expected to test at Thruxton Circuit on Thursday with a host of other BTCC teams.