Shedden wins Snetterton finaleposted in BTCC30 | 07 | 2017

SCOT GORDON SHEDDEN heads to his home rounds of the British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill in 12 days leading the title race after a dramatic win at Snetterton.

The 38-year-old from Auchterarder, bidding to win the title for a fourth time, and third in succession, won a thrilling final race at the Norfolk circuit.

Having struggled with power issues in Saturday’s qualifying, Shedden started today’s opening race at Snetterton from 21st on the 30-car grid.

Having powered through to finish 13th, he then made another six places in the day’s second race to finish seventh.

Starting from second on the reversed grid for the final race, he chased the leading BMW of former champ Andrew Jordan for 11 laps. But on the penultimate lap, the BMW lost power, allowing Shedden to cruise to his third win of the year.

“It’s been a strange, tough weekend,” the Scot admitted afterwards. “If someone had said after qualifying that I’d be heading to Knockhill in a couple of weeks still leading the championship, I’d have bitten their hand off.

“This weekend again shows just how tough and demanding British touring cars is, and sets up a fantastic weekend at Knockhill.

"I was waiting for the onslaught from the two BMWs behind me, but they decided they were going to fight themselves. Obviously they got excited together and helped me out a bit.

"All it takes is to break the tow a little bit and it takes the pressure off. Because Rob (Collard) had been stuck to my boot-lid all race.

"It was one of those races where the cars were strong in different places. We were definitely struggling a bit with tyres in the last four laps. I could see what Jordan was doing. I had a bit of an idea on what to expect and where to expect them to be strong.

“But there's no way in the world I thought we were going to win race three, or even be on the podium, given what we had in qualifying. Sometimes things turn on its head in touring car and you can never say never.

"For me the cards fell my way in the third race. When the chances are there to win, you've got to make sure you win, so that was a really important one."

Shedden heads to Knockhill in Fife on August 12/13 leading the BMW duo of Colin Turkington and Rob Collard by two and four points respectively.

Ash Sutton, who won the opening two races at Snetterton to take the championship lead, was forced to retire from the final race after his Subaru was clattered by Rob Austin’s Toyota. But he heads to Knockhill just 11 points behind Shedden.

It was a mixed day for Dalkeith’s Aiden Moffat (pictured above). After finishing the inning two races 19th and 29th, he produced a storming drive in the day’s final race. Starting from 29th, he battled through to cross the line 12th in his Laser Tolls-backed Mercedes.

Drivers’ Standings

1. Gordon Shedden, 221 points

2. Colin Turkington, 219

3. Rob Collard, 217

4. Ashley Sutton, 210

5. Tom Ingram, 164

6. Matt Neal, 157

Manufacturers’ Standings

1. BMW, 506 points

2. Honda, 452

3. Subaru, 409

4. Vauxhall, 346

5. MG, 214

Teams’ Standings

1. Team BMW, 424 points

2. Halfords Yuasa Racing, 369

3. Adrian Flux Subaru Racing, 265

4. Speedworks Motorsport, 162

5. Eurotech Racing, 156

6. BMW Pirtek Racing, 146

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Jim McGill